Joe Lieberman, Vote to Defund War Could Cause His Change of Parties

Do Democrats really want to push the idea of defunding the war? If so it appears as if they risk losing control in the Senate as Independent CT Senator Joseph Lieberman could change parties. When Democrats use the line that the anti-war sentiment was the reason why Democrats assumed power in the House & Senate during the midterm 2006 elections, one only needs to look to Joe Lieberman’s senate victory over Liberal, anti-war Democratic Ned Lamont to dispel that notion.

Lieberman, a self-styled independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has been among the strongest supporters of the war and President Bush’s plan to send an additional 21,500 combat troops into Iraq to help quell the violence there.

“I have no desire to change parties,” Lieberman said in a telephone interview. “If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don’t feel comfortable with.” (The Politico)

Time Magazine article

Lieberman says leaving the Democratic Party is a “very remote possibility.” But even that slight ambiguity – and all his cross-aisle flirtation – has proved more than enough to position Lieberman as the Senate’s one-man tipping point. If he were to jump ship, the ensuing shift of power to Republicans would scramble the politics of the war in Iraq, undercut the Democrats’ national agenda and potentially weaken their hopes for the White House in 2008

• Ace of Spades; Joe Lieberman: “Remote Possibility” I’ll Jump To The GOP
• Hot Air; Lieberman to go Republican? Update: Maybe – if Dems defund the war
• The Carpetbagger Report; Lieberman mentions the ‘remote possibility’ of switching parties