Simple Answers

Someone at War Room is perplexed:

At this point, Democrats everywhere are pretty familiar with the Senate caucus' "Lieberman Problem." Aside from his problematic votes and rhetoric, Joe Lieberman wants, apparently more than just about everything, to be the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. If Harry Reid denied him the gavel, Lieberman would leave the party, and create a 50-50 split in the chamber.

***

But there's always been one thing I don't understand about Lieberman's motivations: why does he want that chairmanship so much in the first place?

In 2006, seeking re-election, Lieberman said this committee was his top priority, and he was desperate to return to the Senate so he could wield the gavel. And now that he has the authority he sought, he's decided not to conduct any real oversight at all.

He seems to have desperately sought a chairman's gavel just for the sake of having it -- Lieberman wanted power he had no intention of using. Instead of a Senate committee that functions as it should, Lieberman just treads water, using his gavel as a flotation device.

What's more, Lieberman's neglect is made all the more obvious by the performance of Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform -- Lieberman's House counterpart -- who uses the committee's oversight powers as a successful watchdog should.

Answer is: He wants to chair this committee in order to save his GOP wingnut BFFs, including the Saint, from embarrassment over all their idiocies, no?