A chorus of Senate Dems cries out, "Welcome Back, Joe!" (And thanks, President-elect Obama!)

Is that Sen. Barbara Boxer finishing up preparations

for the Dem Senate caucus's "Welcome Back, Joe" bash?

by Ken

An online list colleague was venting suspicion as to the absolute solidarity of our friend Senator Lieberman now that he's been so happily restored to the bosom of the Senate Democratic caucus. Specifically, he was casting doubt as to our Joe's absolute reliability as a clinching 60th vote. Actually, what he said was:

"I will bet my now substantially reduced life savings on this: Joe will never, ever be the 60th vote."

Shocked by this cynicism, I tried to set him straight:

I bet "The 60" are going to have, like, a group photo taken, which they'll all autograph with wacky little in-jokes (that DiFi can be such a cut-up!), and they'll all hang theirs on the walls of their Senate cubicles (I bet those U.S. senators have the real big ones, with room for, like, pictures of their pets in funny hats), and they'll all hang out together and always buy each other goofy little gifts just to show they care, and they'll make each other hot cocoa late at night while telling legislative horror stories (you just know Joey L will bring the tiny marshmallows), and if somebody needs a kidney they'll all line up to be tested, and they'll just generally be BFFs.

(Okay, well, there might be only 47 people in the photo -- the other 13 being listed as officially "camera-shy.")

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