Harry Reid

WASHINGTON - Four years after the GOP successfully sunk the Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate, Democrats are giving Republicans the reverse treatment by going after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

For the last three weeks, national Democrats have barraged Kentucky media markets with television advertisements slamming McConnell (R-Louisville). The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's newest TV ad, out this week, shows McConnell as a delivery truck driver while a narrator says the Republican "backed George Bush's crazy spending and delivered a $10 trillion debt."

In a press conference today, DSCC Chairman Chuck Schumer was repeatedly pressed on whether the decision to target the opposing party's leader was proper. He responded that after Republicans succeeded in targeting then-party leader Tom Daschle in 2004, Democrats had a free hand to go after McConnell.

Joe Lieberman, who votes with the Senate Democratic caucus, has spent the year campaigning with John McCain

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' guilty verdict makes it even more likely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will tell Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to get lost.

Lieberman, officially an Independent Democrat, had become a thorn in the side of Democrats for the past two years. Currently Democrats hold 49 seats in the Senate, but they have a 51-seat control only because Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also an Independent, caucus with Democrats. Ever since Lieberman endorsed Republican John McCain’s White House bid, his relationship with the other Democratic lawmakers has been strained. Yet, Lieberman stayed with the Democrats. They needed him for majority control. He liked his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Stevens' conviction, handed down Monday in a Washington, D.C., federal court, almost ensures that his Democratic opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, will join the Senate. Suddenly Democrats increasingly do not need Lieberman as much as he needs them. The Pindell Report now estimates that with Alaska flipping, Democrats will have 59 seats in the Senate. Democratic majority status is assured. Republicans are also are at risk of losing three more seats in Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. If Democrats pick off just one of those seats they will have necessary benchmark of 60 votes to override a Republican filibuster.

Joe Lieberman, who votes with the Senate Democratic caucus, has spent the year campaigning with John McCain

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' guilty verdict makes it even more likely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will tell Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to get lost.

Lieberman, officially an Independent Democrat, had become a thorn in the side of Democrats for the past two years. Currently Democrats hold 49 seats in the Senate, but they have a 51-seat control only because Lieberman and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also an Independent, caucus with Democrats. Ever since Lieberman endorsed Republican John McCain’s White House bid, his relationship with the other Democratic lawmakers has been strained. Yet, Lieberman stayed with the Democrats. They needed him for majority control. He liked his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Stevens' conviction, handed down Monday in a Washington, D.C., federal court, almost ensures that his Democratic opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, will join the Senate. Suddenly Democrats increasingly do not need Lieberman as much as he needs them. The Pindell Report now estimates that with Alaska flipping, Democrats will have 59 seats in the Senate. Democratic majority status is assured. Republicans are also are at risk of losing three more seats in Mississippi, Georgia and Kentucky. If Democrats pick off just one of those seats they will have necessary benchmark of 60 votes to override a Republican filibuster.