Sen. Joe Lieberman was the Democrats' persona non grata last fall. Having spent most of the year stumping for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, he was on the brink of losing his prized chairmanship of an important Senate committee, and he was on the receiving end of some nasty insults from the soon-to-be Obama White House. One year later, Lieberman is still unwelcome in the liberal wing of the Democratic party, but his status in the Senate is no longer in question. Joe matters.
The Connecticut senator has emerged as the most vocal critic in the Democratic caucus against a government-run insurance plan, pledging to join a Republican filibuster against health care reform "as a matter of conscience" if the public option is in the bill.
And after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood last week, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is poised to lead a congressional investigation into what led to the attack and whether the military and intelligence communities missed "warning signs."
On top of this, the Independent Democrat has embraced the "I" after his name, working at times with fellow Democrats but also hopping across the aisle without hesitation to put pressure on the Obama administration.
In the past few months alone, Lieberman has urged Attorney General Eric Holder not to open an investigation of the intelligence community's interrogation practices; chided President Obama for canceling a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe; and repeatedly joined Republicans in pressing the president to approve a troop increase for Afghanistan.
On Friday, Lieberman ripped the Obama administration's decision to prosecute the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and his accomplices in New York instead of the military commissions.
Timothy Profeta, who used to work as Lieberman's counsel on environmental issues, said Lieberman has emerged once again as an influential moderate.
"There was a lot of raw emotion in '06 and '08 but that seems to have passed at least among the senators themselves," said Profeta, now director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. "He's been able to reassume his role as a bridge between the parties on key issues, and perhaps even strengthen."
While his partisan transgressions have earned him the scorn of liberal commentators and some lawmakers, Lieberman continues to have the public backing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"I have the greatest confidence in Joe Lieberman's ability as a legislator," Reid said late last month after Lieberman threatened to join a filibuster against health care reform. Reid called Lieberman "my friend," and the one he respects more than any senator.
"Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid's problems," Reid said.