New Democratic Majority in Congress Leans Bipartisan

GWEN IFILL:

Next, the leadership and shape of the new Congress. Judy Woodruff has our story.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

The horde of news people gathered in the Senate's Ohio Clock Corridor this morning were eager to discover the fate of two lawmakers, Joe Lieberman and Ted Stevens.

The Democrats emerged from their meeting first. After reporting the results of their leadership elections, Majority Leader Harry Reid turned to the Lieberman issue.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader: Joe Lieberman is a Democrat. He's part of this caucus.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

An Independent Democrat from Connecticut, Lieberman angered some in the Democratic Caucus by endorsing and then actively campaigning for Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

At least three senators in the Democratic Caucus demanded that Lieberman be stripped of his prized chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee as punishment.

But behind closed doors today, Democrats voted 42-13 to keep Lieberman in his post. However, the same group condemned statements made by Lieberman during the campaign and did take away the chairmanship of an Environment and Public Works Subcommittee.

Reid said today's decision was about the future, not the past.

SEN. HARRY REID:

If you look at the problems we face as a nation, is this a time we walk out of here saying, "Boy, did we get even?" I am very satisfied with what we did today.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Lieberman thanked his fellow Democrats for what he said was reconciliation and not retribution.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), Connecticut: I know that my colleagues in the Senate Democratic Caucus were moved not only by the kind words that Sen. Reid said about my long-time record, but by the appeal from President-elect Obama himself that the nation now unite to confront our very serious problems.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Minutes later, when Senate Republicans appeared following their leadership elections, the mood was much different. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked repeatedly about Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted last month of seven felonies for lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in gifts he had received.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader: The conference agreed to postpone the matter until we knew the outcome of the election in Alaska.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

The Republicans had been scheduled to take up a resolution from South Carolina's Jim DeMint calling for Stevens to be expelled from their conference. But with election returns in Alaska showing Stevens at that point trailing his Democratic challenger by more than 1,000 votes, the Republicans decided to wait.

Later in the day, Democrat Mark Begich pulled even further ahead.

Besides Alaska, two other U.S. Senate races remain undecided. In Minnesota, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by just 206 votes out of almost 3 million cast. A statewide hand recount is slated to begin tomorrow.

In Georgia, meanwhile, Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin are set to meet in a runoff on Dec. 2, after Chambliss failed to reach 50 percent of the vote on Election Day.

For a look at what to expect from Congress come January and an update on the Senate races that have yet to be resolved, we turn to Amy Walter, editor-in-chief of the Hotline, National Journal's political daily.

And Nate Silver, he runs the political Web site fivethirtyeight.com. The site is non-partisan, but Silver personally supported Barack Obama during the presidential campaign.

Welcome to you both.