Reid on Lieberman: Not time for retribution

By Lisa Mascaro

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 | 10:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Ten senators spoke. The debate lasted 1 1/2 hours. The result this morning was an overwhelming vote to allow renegade Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep his standing as a Democratic chairman in the U.S. Senate.

The secret vote in the closed door meeting of Senate Democrats was 42-13 to keep Lieberman, the Independent Democrat from Connecticut, rather than strip him of his standing as retribution for having campaigned on behalf of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Liberals, especially bloggers who have called for his ouster by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, may not be pleased. They had pushed the leader to take a tougher stance.

But this is the stately Senate, and Reid still needs every vote he can get to pass legislation despite his bolstered ranks.

“This was not a time for retribution,” Reid said this afternoon. “We need to be unified.”

The resolution approved by the senators does not express disapproval with Lieberman’s activities on behalf of McCain, but spelled out the caucus’ displeasure with his criticisms of then-presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Senators said no apology had been requested during the closed door meeting, and none was offered.

Lieberman said later that he regretted some of his campaign rhetoric, but declined to elaborate.

“There are some statements that I made that I wish I had not made at all,” Lieberman said. “I regret that.”

Lieberman will also retain his chairmanship of a subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee but he said Reid asked him to step down from the Environment and Public Works Committee, and he will. He said he and McCain, the Arizona senator, plan to introduce global warming legislation in the new year.

(As an aside, a group trying to stop Democrats’ efforts to pass pro-labor legislation that would allow unions to more easily form without a secret ballot by simply signing up on a card suggested this morning that Democratic senators should use this method of casting votes on Lieberman. Senators declined and voted by secret ballot.)

Reid said he understood the anger from those on the left that wanted more punitive action.

“I defy anyone to be any more angry than I was,” said Reid. “This is a period of time in Joe Lieberman’s political career I don’t understand or approve.”