As my colleague John Nichols reports, to the surprise of few on Capitol Hill — but to the disappointment of many beyond the beltway — Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman will retain his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Homeland Security Committee and his place in the Democratic Caucus. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he “feels good” about the decision and won’t “apologize to anyone for what we did today.”

Lieberman thus gets away with his full-throated endorsement of John McCain, his long-standing alliance with the Bush Administration on foreign-policy and his public skepticism regarding Barack Obama’s fitness for the presidency.

Or does he?

In America, it’s never too early to start preparing for the next election and the call is already out in the blogosphere to pledge to help defeat Lieberman in 2012. The influential Jane Hamsher put out the call this morning at FireDogLake and she’s planning to turn over the names of all pledges to the campaign of the progressive Democratic nominee for Lieberman’s US Senate seat in 2012. As she correctly notes, “The number of people who want Lieberman held to account grew exponentially during the 2008 election, and those who stood up to defend him might be surprised at how much political capital they expended in doing so.”

Let’s see how high we can make the cost of providing cover to George Bush’s favorite Democrat. By signing on you promise to donate money, volunteer, make calls from a distance, and/or help defeat Joe Lieberman in any way you can. Add your name to the pledge today.