Is Joe Lieberman Bush's choice for Homeland Security secretary? Jesse Taylor at Pandagon thinks so, citing this New Haven Register story, and Lieberman's name is certainly coming up a lot in the press in connection with the job. If he takes the job, of course, Connecticut's GOP governor will replace him in the Senate with a Republican.

In Jesse's comments section, Julia of Sisyphus Shrugged argues that that's no great loss:

it's not as if the Republicans didn't already have his vote on anything the Democrats could have filibustered....

But that's a misconception. In 2002, Lieberman filibustered ANWR drilling; in 2003, the pro-Bush Center for Individual Freedom condemned Lieberman, listing sixteen votes that would have ended filibusters of Bush judicial nominees and noting that Lieberman never once voted to bring those filibusters to an end. And Lieberman got a 0 rating in 2003 from the American Conservative Union because, among other things, he opposed repeal of the estate tax, affirmed Roe v. Wade, and voted against development of battlefield nuclear weapons.

So, yeah, he's a sanctimonious SOB, but sometimes he's a sanctimonious SOB who's on our side. Losing his seat to a Republican would absolutely be a setback. (Remember: Even the GOP moderates vote in lockstep on, say, judicial nominees.)