The Senate voted 53-38 (roll call) to invoke cloture and express no confidence in Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. These are the Republicans that voted against Gonzales: Coleman (MN), Collins (ME), Hagel (NE), Smith (OR), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), and Sununu (NH). Snowe and Specter are not facing re-election in 2008, but the other five are. Specter’s vote was a bit of a surprise because he appeared (at least to me) to be speaking against the resolution on the Senate floor. Ted Stevens (AK), who is also facing reelection, voted ‘present’. Sam Brownback (KS), Tom Coburn (OK) and John McCain (AZ) didn’t vote. McCain has pretty much given up voting on anything. I don’t see him remaining in the Senate past this year (and certainly not for another term).

There were four Democrats that didn’t vote: Biden (DE), Dodd (CT), and Obama (IL) that were out campaigning for president, and Tim Johnson (SD) who is still recovering from brain surgery.

The big surprise was Joe Lieberman. You can watch the video of Lieberman voting at Crooks & Liars. You’ll see him amble up late and stand around, non-committal. Then you’ll see Chuck Schumer (NY), who initiated the resolution, lobbying Joe on his vote. Eventually they are joined by co-sponsor Diane Feinstein (CA). Lieberman appears to listen but then abruptly shows the clerk a big thumbs down and walks away. After a few steps something occurs to him and he goes back to say something to Schumer.

Up until today, Lieberman’s betrayals have been mostly limited to issues of national security. And he issued a press release explaining his vote:

“My vote against going ahead with more debate on this no confidence resolution is not an expression of confidence in Attorney General Gonzales. It is an expression of opposition to spending any more time on a resolution that will accomplish nothing, instead of going ahead with the next item of business, which is energy legislation. If we work urgently together on energy legislation, we can accomplish something that is truly important to the American people.

“As I have said before, Attorney General Gonzales is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, and it’s time for him to really look into his own heart and soul, as tough as it is, and ask whether he should continue in this job. And it is time for the Senate to move on right now to do something about energy prices supplies and energy prices.”

Atrios told me on Saturday that Lieberman would vote with Gonzo and I didn’t believe him. Of course, he also said Specter would vote with Gonzo and I didn’t believe that either. So, we went 50-50 on the predictions. But, the larger question is what does this vote portend?

It seems to me to be a fairly straightforward caucus vote. If you are a Republican (and have no principles) you vote with the Republicans, and if you are a Democrat you vote with the Democrats. No one, except possibly Orrin Hatch, has any actual confidence in the job Gonzales is doing at the Justice Department. The Republicans just wanted to avoid some embarrassment. So, what is Joe doing voting with the GOP here? It looks like he now considers himself a member of their caucus. It’s not like this vote had anything to do with Iraq or Israel, and Lieberman said in his press release that he had no confidence in Gonzales.

Some people have speculated that Lieberman is afraid that a new Attorney General will be forced to open up a kind of independent counsel investigation of AttorneyGate and that it could be trouble for Joe’s kissing partner. I kind of doubt this vote involves that level of calculation. I think Lieberman may be signaling his intention to caucus with the Republicans.

I hope he does. I have no use for him.