Joe Leaverman?

Word around the campfire is that Connecticut Independent Senator Joe Lieberman (Above right, with John McCain), who has pledged to caucus (Congressional speak for "vote with") Democrats, is considering jumping ship and moving over to the Republican party.

Let him.

The last thing this party needs is another Zell Miller, a turncoat piece of garbage if there ever was one.

Yes, if the Democrats let Lieberman go, it will cost them control of the Senate, but in all honesty, I'd much rather see the Dems stick to their principles by not letting Joe dictate to them.

And besides, in another 18 months, we'll have another election, and by then, if the Democrats have done a decent job, the party will have a realistic shot at picking up more seats in the Senate - of the 33 Senate seats up for reelection in 2008, 21 are held by Republicans and 12 by Democrats. (See map above - Dark Blue is Democrats up for a reelection, dark red Republicans, and light red is retiring Republicans. Gray states have no one up for reelection.)

What's more, the Democrats hold such a slim majority right now, they don't have the votes to simply move forward with their agenda anyway. Sure, there would be disadvantages to sharing control with the Republicans if Joe moves to the GOP, which would necessitate the parties share power, but in the end, I don't want to see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats get dictated to by a myopic Democrat who still blindly supports this war.

Let the GOP have a cup o' Joe.