Several people have e-mailed to ask why Joe Lieberman is (apparently) going to announce tomorrow that he won’t be running for re-election to the Senate.

I haven’t spoken with Lieberman in a while, and I have no inside information. But isn’t the answer pretty obvious? He doesn’t want to run for re-election only to have to step down even before his new term began, in order to accept the position of Secretary of Defense in the new Ryan-Rubio administration. This way he can lead “Independents for R²,” then move right after election day into preparations for the Cabinet post.