Connecticut independent U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman will announce later today that he will not run for re-election in 2012, ending a career in the Senate that began in 1988.

The Nutmeg State's former secretary of state, Democrat Susan Bysiewicz has already shot out of the gate in what tri-state observers say will be an extremely competitive field of Democrats to attempt to succeed Lieberman, and in the end, the Dems should come out on top with a (you would think) more reliable vote than is currently the situation.

Though nationally Democrats may cheer that news, they can't be pleased to hear that North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad announced on Tuesday that he will call it a career in the Senate as well. Like Lieberman, Conrad has served in the Senate since 1988.

Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic party's vice presidential nominee, infuriated liberals across the country after he lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont in his last re-election bid in 2006, but ultimately defeated him again in the general election when he ran as an independent. Actually, he had already upset many with his broad support for the Iraq war.

He upset Dems/libs further when he became a huge advocate for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, speaking at the GOP Convention and reportedly being McCain's true choice for VP (rumors were that the far right would have flipped out if he had done so, thus giving us Sarah Palin).

But Lieberman did put himself back in good stead with a lot of those same liberals just last month, when he tenaciously fought to keep the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell on banning gays in the military, up for a vote in the Senate. Of course it was successfully repealed right before Christmas.

Looking around at other Democrats up for re-election in 2012, and frankly, Republicans might be licking their chops right now.

Certainly one of the biggest battleground states will be Florida, where Democrat Bill Nelson will be facing some well-financed Republican who will try to take him down. But they'd be foolish to downplay some of his strengths. As others have written in the past week, with President Obama on the ballot in 2012, there will be a hell of a lot more Democrats voting than those who mustered up the enthusiasm in November.

Nelson's namesake in Nebraska, Ben Nelson, will be up for re-election in 2012. Probably the most conservative in the Senate (well, he's got some competition with West Virginia's Joe Manchin), Nelson is hardly the darling of progressives – but if he doesn't run, that could seat could easily fall into GOP hands.

Then there's Hawaii, where Daniel Akaka is up for re-election. Politico reports that that state's popular Republican Governor, Linda Lingle, "could force him into retirement." Wisconsin and New Mexico are other states where the Democratic incumbent may not run for re-election.

Republicans, who now currently control the House, need to win just four seats in 2012 to take over the Senate as well.

This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.