Reid "Very Disappointed" With Lieberman's Convention Speech

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - While pundits roundly panned Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) convention speech on Tuesday as ineffective, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) seems to think it had sharp enough barbs to merit a statement.

Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000, repeatedly impugned Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) message of change and post-partisanship during an address that keynoted the GOP's first full day of convention activities.

"Both presidential candidates this year talk about changing the culture of Washington," Lieberman said. "But only one of them has actually done it. Only one leader has shown the courage and the capability to rise above the smallness of our politics to get big things done."

Calling Obama "a gifted and eloquent young man," Lieberman said eloquence is no substitute for a record during tough times, especially a record that showed no significant accomplishments through bipartisanship or work against "powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party."

The Connecticut lawmaker accused Obama of "pending so much time and so much money trying to convince voters that John McCain is someone else." He also belittled the freshman Illinois senator's accomplishments with a comparison to the achievements of former President Bill Clinton, who unlike Obama, he said, stood up to Democratic lobbyists, working welfare reform with Republicans and balancing the budget.

Lieberman has been caucusing as an "independent Democrat" with Democrats despite his role as surrogate for the McCain campaign. Democrats have largely tried to turn a blind eye to his comments in order to keep a razor thin 51-49 majority in the Senate.

But Tuesday night Reid issued what seemed to be a veiled threat to Lieberman's future in a Democratic Congress. "Senator Reid was very disappointed in Senator Lieberman's speech tonight... As the American people have made very clear, the last thing this country needs is another four years of the same old failed Bush-McCain policies of the past," spokesman Jim Manley told CNN.

A growing movement to remove Lieberman as head of the Senate Homeland Security and Public Works Committee began in July. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last month issued an earlier threat, telling KGO Radio Democrats "won't need him to make the majority. And it will be interesting to see what the leadership in the Senate, the Democratic leadership in the Senate, does at that point in terms of Joe Lieberman's chairmanship of his committee."