Washington (CNN) - Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman told CNN Tuesday that he has not ruled out running as a Republican in 2012.
Lieberman told CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash Tuesday that the move remained a legitimate, if unlikely, option. "I don't know what I'll run as," he said. "I like being an independent. So that's definitely a possibility. But I'd say all options are open….
"It's unlikely I'd run as a Republican, but I wouldn't foreclose any possibility. I think the more likely thing is that I'd run as an independent because that's what I am."
He also denied that a decision on whether to caucus with Republicans depended on which party was in the majority: "Well, no. It depends on where I am. That's all hypothetical. I'm just happy to be where I am. I'm grateful I got reelected in '06, and I'm going to try to do the best I can every day.
"I've reached the stage in my career where I'm not measuring every step I take based on how it's going to affect the next election. I think if you do that you end up compromising the quality of your service."
"In this very polarized time in our politics, if you take a stand, a bunch of people will think you've done something great and a bunch of people will think you've done something awful. You've got to decide, I've got to decide that I've done the best I could to do what's right and best for my country and my state. And that's what I feel I'm doing on health care reform."
Related: Lieberman moving towards a 'yes' vote on health care reform
From CNN Politics
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How about run for the hills instead? Lieberman's motives are too blatantly obvious and self serving to merit anything but an early retirement. I'm sure he's made enough money from his pet lobbyists to pay for his own health insurance!
Or maybe he's so far in the pocket of Big Pharma and the Insurance Industry that he can't even see his way out. Any politician who has accepted huge campagin contributions from the Insurance Industry or Big Pharma has ZERO credibility on the issue of healthcare overhaul!
This guy is a joke !He cares nothing about the people. We only cares about the insurance companies in Hartford and his vendetta towards the liberal Democrats. Three months ago he was suggesting the Medicare solution.
I think the option of Senator Joe Lieberman being elected is fading fast!
There is simply no way Senior Citizens in his district are going to vote for him again. I doubt many democrats would re-elect this embarrassment back to the Senate ever again.
Elect a true Democratic Senator, get rid of Senator Joe Lieberman
Go Away JOE!!!!!!
Joe Lieberman likes being an Independent for one reason only, and that is because he is power mad. He loves having the Democrats AND Republicans crawling on all fours to pander to him. I hope his constituents wake up and dump him when they have the opportunity. He will never become a Republican because he couldn't get re-elected if he did. We need moderates in Congress, not demi-Gods.
Just ask Joe Lieberman, he will tell you he is the most important important person in America. What a piece of crap he is.
If Lieberman were in a jug, I wouldn't fart in it to save his life.
If only more politicians felt this way. Blue or red shouldn't matter! What matters is what the people need. That has been lost in party politics.
Joe liberman is not worried about his next election. Thats good neither are we.
This slimy weasel would fit right in with the GOP group. No honesty ,corrupt and ready to put the screws to anybody no matter male/female if he can further HIS agenda. They will have to come up with a new description to to fit this slimey jerk.
They don't have jerk party,do they ?
Why did not the Dem leadership remove Lieberman from any Committee posts when he actively campaigned for the Republican candidate last year? It is obvious that he's caucusing with the Dems so that he can learn strategies to throw monkey wrenches in their plans and therefore help his Repub friends! I certainly hope that Connecticut voters throw this fraud out of office next time; even the ones that work for all those Conn Insurance Companies that will stab the voters in the back in the end!
Just switch, Joe. You've behaved like a republican since you put the "I" after your name.
If Joe wants to run again he'll have to run on the Insurance Company ticket . . . who else would sponsor him?
Who cares what he runs as, just as long as he loses the race.
take his chairmanship because he isn't part of the blue team
..."my country," he means Israel.
When he says "my state," he means the insurance companies headquartered in his state.
Not quite the same thing the rest of us mean when we say those words. And his continuing presence in the Senate depends on Connecticut voters continuing to misunderstand that very basic fact.
This guy has been upset since 2000. He is the main reason gore lost the election. No southern state was going to vote democratic because of him.This is a very bitter man,he is all alone now.
Please Joe .... run as a Republican.
You can hold your head high in the party of Lincoln ... Palin, Limbaugh, Bush, and DeMint.
Oh yeah, don't forget Cheney ... there's yet another reason to go with the GOP. Hey, your wife can keep on working for the drug companies. No ethics problems problems there.
Don't think twice about the Democrats, Joe. They got you elected to the U.S. Senate and worked their tails off to help elect you Vice-President. Oh yeah, all that legislation you got passed while you were in teh Senate ... that was the Republicans that helped you get thatthrough right?
You owe the Dems nothing, man. In politics, it's every man for himself and no one is more justified in looking out for Number One and Only than you, pal.
Lieberman's like McCain and Palin, a grifter who's only in it for himself.
He's reached the point in his career where the only thing that matters is the balance in his bank account.
Mr. Lieberman is clearly a tool of the insurance industry, which would lose a large number of customers by allowing them to buy into medicare at 55. He changed his position and will change parties to keep his position. He has no principle or core values other then self preservation and to line his pockets. He should be embarassed but hes not.
This just shows how sleezy this guy can be. He's a camelion – he'll take any form it takes to get reelected no matter what he believes in or what his constituents think of him.
They told him no in the primaries as a Democrat. What does he do? Go end around to get on the ballot as an independent only getting narroly elected because he split the republican vote.
I may live in the West, but I sure won't mind adding few dollars to defeat this guy come 2012!!!!!!!