Lieberman: Debacle, or short man on end of stiff plank with point object at his back?

So the bloggers are bellyaching about whether the netroots got kicked in the pants by Lieberman getting to keep his plush job. The highly recommended Whiskey Fire thinks that it's nothing to do with the bloggers, but it's the liberal congress things that got screwed.

The way I see it, Lieberman only looks like he's holding any cards. Sure he seems to have got what he wanted, and sure he's unlikely to get yanked in the middle of a session - that would just be embarrassing. But the house showed that it was willing to boot a member with higher standing when it shunted Levin out in favor of Waxman, so Lieberman knows that there's a recent and ready precedent for a strong challenger to cut him off at the knees in 2 years, and he knows that he has at best fair weather friends over on the Republican side, who agree with him on almost nothing but Iraq... So now has to chairmanate like he's actually worried about losing it, and he can't afford to make any enemies along the way among the democratic ranks who may soon depose him.

There's nothing like a senator who is starting to feel the burn under his little tosies to produce a delightful display of jumping back into line with alacrity.

Good boy Joe. The memo on "how high" is on its way.