I think it’d be a potentially good move for Bush as it might shore him up a bit in Congress to be able to say he’s “reaching out” to Democrats (which of course, like so much else in Bush World would be a sham). For Lieberman, it’d prob. flatter his ego & might be appealing. But the major beneficiary I think would be the Democratic Party which would lose one of its mealy-mouthed cheerleaders for national security uber alles. I’d love to see one of Connecticut’s Democratic congressmembers run for the new slot so we can get a decent Democratic voice in the senate fr. the state.

As for how Lieberman’s ascendancy would reflect on U.S. policy toward Israel–I don’t know that it’d have that much influence. But one thing I will say is that if you had AIPAC/Israeli espionage penetrating the Pentagon under Rummy, it’ll be even more likely under a Lieberman regime. He’s one of AIPAC’s most lockstep members of COngress & has many connections to neocons.

In short, I think Lieberman could hurt the I-P conflict (guess I have to take back a bit what I just wrote above) even more than Rummy because he’s more likely to want to meddle in it than Rummy was. I can see a real catfight brewing on this subject w. Condi as she’s taken a strong interest in attempting to resolve the IP conflict (& done pretty well for herself so far I’d say).