COUNTDOWN: Reid Misses Chance To Send Message To Lieberman

Watching Countdown just now, Keith Olbermann asked a key question to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, his guest at the top of the hour.

He pointed out that Reid had said in the past that apostate "Independent Democrat" Joe Lieberman is still a valued member of the caucus, because he "is with us on all but a few issues." Olbermann reminded him that now there is a new issue on which Lieberman and the Democratic caucus diverge:

Who should be the next President of the United States??

And...in response, Harry Reid....punted.

OLBERMANN: "You have said Senator Lieberman of Connecticut supports us on virtually everything except the war. Obviously, though, now there is something else he disagrees with the Democrats on. And that is who is the next president...or, who should be the next president. He's campaigning for Mr. McCain..."

REID: (Laughs) "Had to...Had to bring that up, didn't you?"

OLBERMANN: "Well, it is fairly...(laughs)...It is something of a topic for the rest of the year. Is there anything that he can do that would make you move to take his leadership position away on Homeland Security?"

REID: "Yeah...of course. Understand, Keith, that our margin of being a majority has been pretty slim. With Tim Johnson getting sick, and before the nine new Democratic senators were sworn in, he was in a coma for five weeks, and out of work for ten months. We didn't...Our majority is 50-49. And with Joe voting with the Republicans on the war, we didn't have a majority. So we fought pretty hard for not having a majority. But I think the facts are that we are going to watch very closely. Joe has been very good on issues...with some exception...on everything but the war. But, you know, I don't have all the Democrats on everything, so it's really unfair to pick on Joe on a few other things.

(Emphasis mine)

There are a few ways to look at this moment.

1. By mentioning the narrow majority, is Reid sending a signal that he intends to cut Joe Lieberman loose once he has a larger majority? That might be what he indicated when he said "we are going to watch very closely."

2. He could be as big a tool on this issue as ever. In particular, I was disappointed in two aspects of this answer: 1) His clear deflection on the key point that Keith Olbermann sought to raise--how can Lieberman keep a Democratic leadership post while actively campaigning for the Republican Party's nominee for President; 2) His laughable statement at the close that he found it "unfair" that Joe is the target for so much derision.

I have always held out some hope that with a large majority, Reid would get a little more ballsy, and send Joe packing to the GOP. This VERY equivocal answer does not give me a great deal of hope.