Who Could Have Predicted…

…that Joe Lieberman would make it his business to make Joe Lieberman the big issue?

No one was surprised to see Joseph I. Lieberman , the Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, siding with the Republican leadership this month during the latest Senate debate over the Iraq War.

Lately, though, Lieberman has taken his alliance with GOP leaders up a notch. During the abortive debate on the defense authorization bill, he attended daily tactical sessions to help them plan their strategy for combatting anti-war amendments and their rhetorical points for use against the Democrats. And in a fitting symbolic twist, some of those meetings convened just down the hall from the office of Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who essentially owes his 51-seat majority to Lieberman’s continued caucusing with the Democrats.

Before the Democrats realized they could not break a GOP filibuster and set aside their anti-war crusade last week, the meetings were the main forum for developing the GOP counterpunching strategy. For example, the group — which typically included GOP leaders such as Minority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi and prominent supporters of the war such as John McCain of Arizona — decided to highlight a Lieberman amendment that would have required the administration to report on Iranian support for attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.

I hate to say “We told you so.”…but we did.  You don’t lance the boil, it continues to fester and just ends up getting bigger and more painful with every passing moment.  And at this point, Joe Lieberman’s ego has boiled over.  How’s that working for you, Democratic leadership in the Senate?

(H/T to Atrios for the CQ link.  Photo via the Huffington Post.)

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