Dems Spare Lieberman

Joe Lieberman has avoided tar-and-feathering and received, instead, a rather light slap on the hand from Democrats for his heresy during the presidential election. Senate Democrats obliged President-elect Obama’s wishes and voted to allow Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, stripping him instead of a subcommittee chairmanship. Democrats feared that if they took away Homeland Security, Lieberman would defect to the Republican caucus. In other party house-cleaning news, Senate Republicans delayed a vote on whether they should remove convicted felon Ted Stevens from their conference and strip him of his committee chairmanship. Stevens appears to be headed to defeat in the ongoing election in Alaska for his seat.