Blame Obama?

Fivethirtyeight.com posted an interesting blog about Obama's stance on maintaining Lieberman as the Homeland Security Chairman. Lieberman's been kind of an embarrassment for the Democratic party while also serving as an interesting, to say the least, Republican something or other -- well shoot, I don't even really know what to call Ol' Joe anymore, except a sort of anomaly as of late.

But basically, Obama encouraged the committee to maintain Lieberman as the Chair despite his disloyalty to the party - I think this shows some foresight on Obama's part; not just because of the reasons stated in the other blog. First of all, despite Obama loading up his cabinet with people he agrees with (which, isn't a political anomaly, I'd be quick to state) he is also encouraging at least some kind of potential dissent. You can't expect a fairly progressive Democrat to not enjoy his power to appoint people with whom he can easily work and collaborate (you can't expect any politician to do otherwise, really) but it does show some levelheadedness and fairness encouraging Lieberman to stay around.

It'll just be interesting to see what else happens now that Republicans won't have the ability to filibuster in the House or Senate and the fact that we may see a liberal shift in all 3 branches of the federal government as a result of any Supreme Court appoinments Obama may make in the next 4 (or God-willing, 8 years). :)