With the two parties still sorting through the 2010 election detritus, Sen. Joseph Lieberman has gone to another place with a lot of political turmoil: Iraq.
Connecticut’s soon-to-be senior U.S. senator is traveling abroad this week with Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham, of Arizona and South Carolina respectively. Lieberman’s office was tightlipped about the itinerary, citing security concerns, but said the trip was to assess the political and military situation in the critical Middle East region.
Whether the three senators are also discussing the political landscape back in the U.S., where Republicans could control as many as 47 seats in the U.S. Senate, is unclear. (The GOP won 46 seats, and one Senate contest, in Alaska, remains undecided.)
But the possibility of Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent, switching parties to caucus with the GOP, seems much less likely now that Senate Republicans appear to be at least 4 votes shy of a 51-seat majority.
“Sen. Lieberman is happy where he is in the Senate, and he has no other plans,” said Lieberman spokesman Marshall Wittmann, reiterating a line Lieberman used before Election Day.