Lieberman Says He Has Been Promised Seniority
    By Alexander Bolton
    The Hill

    Tuesday 03 October 2006

    Sen. Joe Lieberman, the longtime Democratic senator from Connecticut running for re-election as an independent, says the party leadership has assured him he would keep his seniority if he returns to Congress.

    Local Democrats are responding with irritation, political opponents voice disbelief, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) denies making a decision.

    But the strongest response is likely to come from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) who views Lieberman's independent status as an opportunity to press Democratic leaders to restore seniority he lost four years ago.

    If Lautenberg retrieves seniority accrued during 18 years of Senate service before retiring in 2000, he could leapfrog Lieberman to lead the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee or the Environment and Public Works Committee.

    Lieberman has served 18 years in the upper chamber. Lautenberg has served a total of 22 years, but he has only four years of recognized seniority because he retired from Congress for two years in 2000.

    While even Lautenberg's allies admit the chances of jumping over as many as five lawmakers on either committee are small, the senator thinks he has a strong case.

    Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, does not want to wrestle with these questions in public before the Nov. 7 election.

    "The caucus won't make any decisions until after the elections in November," said Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley.

    While that response implies that Lieberman's status is to be decided by the entire caucus, senior Democratic aides say questions of seniority are largely decided by Reid.

    Lieberman said he would keep his senior position in the caucus, even though he lost Connecticut's Democratic primary, and is running against Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, whom the Senate Democratic leadership has endorsed.

    "That's what I've been told," said Lieberman in an interview Friday, before Congress recessed for the election. "Caucuses like to keep as many members as they can, not discourage membership," implying that leaders risk his defection to the GOP if they strip him of seniority.

    Lieberman said he assumed that would mean he would continue to serve as the top Democrat on the governmental affairs panel. It would also allow him to become the most senior Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. But Lieberman said his desire is to stay atop Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

    It looks more and more likely that Lieberman will win reelection. A poll released last week by Quinnipiac University showed Lieberman holding a 49-39 percent lead over Lamont among likely voters.

    That could create big problems with Democrats in Congress and around the country if their party takes over the Senate. The governmental affairs panel is primarily responsible for oversight and investigations of the executive branch.

    If Democrats take over either the Senate or the House, it is expected they will pour much time and effort into investigating the Bush administration. And many Democrats think Lieberman, who lost the primary race because of his perceived closeness to the Bush administration, is not the right person for that job.

    Tom Matzzie, the Washington director of MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group that supports Lamont, said Lieberman may be spreading false information to make himself a more attractive candidate.

    "This is a Lieberman campaign tactic," he said. "Democratic leaders are supporting Ned Lamont."

    Bill Grad, who sits on the Democratic Town Council of Greenwich, Conn., Lamont's home town, said Lieberman has very actively distanced himself from the Democratic Party, and that it was wrong of leaders to promise anything.

    "Why should Reid tell the guy in advance that he'll have his seniority. If it comes to that, that's fine. But it's disappointing, it's greatly disappointing that he would be given assurances."

    "He's not running as a Democrat," said Grad, who is also a volunteer for Democratic candidate Diane Farrell. "He couldn't be more clear about that. He's not supporting any Democrats running for Congress."

    Lamont's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

    Lautenberg does not have anything critical to say about Lieberman, but he calls himself a "dyed-in-the-wool" Democrat and says he wants to see Lamont win.

    He also said that as the election approaches, now is the time for him to make the case to colleagues and leaders that he should regain his seniority.

    "I will make the case, I will make the case," said Lautenberg emphatically. "The closer to the election, the better the reminder has to be."

    "I saved a Democratic seat," he said of his 2002 election. "I financed the race myself at the beginning."

    Lautenberg declared his 2002 candidacy about a month before Election Day after former Sen. Bob Torricelli (D-N.J.) suddenly resigned his seat soon after the Senate Ethics Committee rebuked him for accepting improper gifts. Lautenberg won the seat, which Republicans had a good chance of capturing because of Torricelli's ethical troubles.

    Lautenberg also spent nearly $1.5 million of his own money on the race.

    Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), a thirty-year Senate veteran who is retiring at the end of this Congress, said he is sympathetic to Lautenberg.

    "It looks like he has a case to make but I don't know what rule he's working off," he said.

    But Senate history is not reassuring for Lautenberg. When Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D) returned to the Senate after serving as vice-president under President Lyndon Johnson, he lost all the seniority he accrued before leaving for the White House, said Senate Historian Richard Baker.