“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.”

Asked if he will seek the Democratic nomination when he runs for re-election in 2012, Lieberman said, “That’s an open question.”

“There are options,” Lieberman said. “The other, obviously, is to just start as an independent, which is where I ended up in 2006.”