The right move

Lieberman stays in the Democratic caucus, keeps his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but is stripped of a subcommittee chair on the Environment and Public Works Committee--a symbolic retributive gesture.

This is a good outcome. First, it gets this distracting, inside-the-beltway melodrama overwith and out of the news well before Obama takes office; second, it gives Democrats a shot at nabbing a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority in the Senate; and third, it all but guarantees that Lieberman will be 100% on board with Obama's ambitious domestic agenda (although I think this would have more or less been the case no matter what).

Ah, conciliation! It gets legislation passed. And that's the only thing that matters.