Pat Dollard

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ABC:

Sounding more like an independent than a Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., tells ABC News he will campaign for some Republican candidates during the 2010 midterm elections and may not seek the Democratic Senate nomination when he runs for re-election in 2012.

“I probably will support some Republican candidates for Congress or Senate in the election in 2010. I’m going to call them as I see them,” Lieberman said in an ABC News “Subway Series” interview aboard the U.S. Capitol Subway System.

Lieberman infuriated fellow Democrats in 2008 by supporting Republican presidential nominee John McCain as well as congressional candidates Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

The moves nearly cost Lieberman his chairmanship of the Commerce Committee, but after promising to be a loyal Democrat he was allowed to keep his gavel.

Now, he says he’ll do it again.

“There’s a hard core of partisan, passionate, hardcore Republicans,” Lieberman said. “There’s a hard core of partisan Democrats on the other side.

And in between is the larger group, which is people who really want to see the right thing done, or want something good done for this country and them — and that means, sometimes, the better choice is somebody who’s not a Democrat.”

In the big campaign in his home state of Connecticut next year, however, Lieberman said he will strongly support Democratic incumbent Sen. Chris Dodd, who faces a tough re-election battle.

“I believe Sen. Dodd will get re elected, but it’s not going to be easy. This is going to be a tough year for incumbents,” Lieberman said. “I hope I can help him get re-elected.”

In the Senate, Lieberman again has angered Democrats by saying he is adamantly opposed to including a so-called “public option” in the current health care reform bill.