With the report late last week of Senator Joseph Lieberman’s meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Lieberman’s options seem to have come down to to a couple:

• Take Reid’s offer to lose his Homeland Security committee chairmanship and accept another committee charimanship, perhaps the Veterans Affairs Committee.
• Caucus with the Republicans, as offered by minority leader Mitch McConnell.

Now, I don’t particularly like some of the comments Lieberman has made, especially some of them he made during the Republican National Convention, namely that Obama hasn’t put country first.  But, I’ve come to Lieberman’s defense before, and still do.  However, I don’t think Lieberman should caucus with the Republicans.

The problem is that the reason they like him so much is his support for the Iraq war and other foreign policy views.  And besides maybe a few other issues, they don’t agree on much else.  Indeed, in terms of domestic policy, Lieberman is most at home with the Democrats.  In interviews, Lieberman is not hesitant to declare himself a Democrat, even after running as an Independent in 2006.  His heart clearly still lies with them.

So, I’m not seeing the benefit of caucusing with the Republicans.  Where you had a lot of the base uncomfortable even with the more socially conservative John McCain before the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, I just don’t see where Lieberman fits in.  He would indeed be one of the most, if not the most, liberal member of the Republican caucus.  I’m just not buying the second option, as once the wars are over, it’s not like he’s going to suddenly vote with the Republicans a majority of the time.

Lieberman’s convictions are strong (it’s what got him into this situation in the first place), and joining the Republican caucus isn’t going to stop him voting with the Democrats on a great deal of domestic issues.  As for the first option, I don’t think Lieberman is going to consider a re-assignment acceptable.

Could there be a third way?  Maybe.

According to the Politico, some Senators are apparently suggesting that Obama step in and reconcile with Lieberman.  I think the hope is that an Obama statement of forgiveness would force the Senate Democratic caucus to forget about stripping Lieberman of the Homeland Security chairmanship.  Lieberman’s fellow Connecticut senator, Christopher Dodd, may have endorsed this strategy on Friday, saying that Obama shouldn’t want this fight over Lieberman to be the first thing that happens during his administration.

Obama doing this would upset some on the left, of course.  But I think that if Obama wants his message of post-partisanship to actually hold some water, it would be a wise move.  So it’s one that I endorse.  Let by-gones be by-gones, I say.  The election is over now, so show some leadership by making one of the first acts of your pre-presidency a committment to unity.