Reid: Lieberman to wait for penalty

WASHINGTON -- There will be no immediate payback against Sen. Joe Lieberman, who used podium time at the Republican National Convention this week to tear into Democrat Barack Obama at the same time he promoted John McCain for the presidency, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Reid plans to wait until after the November elections to determine a fate for Lieberman, a Senate independent who nonetheless caucuses with the Democrats and who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Reid, D-Nev., watched Lieberman's speech and was "disappointed," spokesman Jon Summers said. Reid was vacationing this week and was not commenting directly, Summers said.

In his speech to Republicans in St. Paul, Minn., Lieberman said Obama "is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record -- not in these tough times.

"In the Senate during the 31/2 years that Sen. Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done," Lieberman said.

Democrats cried foul. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN it was a "flat out lie" that Obama has not worked with Republicans. He cited the Democratic candidate's work on spending bills with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and his efforts on nuclear nonproliferation with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

"It appeared as though Senator Lieberman chose to go out of his way to distort Sen. Obama's record of bipartisan achievement," Summers said. "The fact of the matter is Obama has worked with leaders on both sides of the aisle."

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene next week for roughly a month before recessing again for the fall campaign. On most issues Lieberman votes reliably with Democrats, helping them preserve a narrow 51-49 majority.

Asked why Reid would wait to discipline a member of his caucus, Summers said when the Senate reconvenes, "we still have business to take care of."

"Reid will take another look at it after the election," Summers said. Jim Manley, another Reid aide, told The Hill newspaper that "it's likely" the Democratic caucus will gather after the elections to determine a course on Lieberman.

Democrats are poised to expand their Senate majority by a half-dozen seats at least in November, which presumably would make Lieberman more expendable if Reid chose to take away his chairmanship and other privileges.

Lieberman, who is from Connecticut, was a Democrat and was the party's vice presidential candidate in 2000 alongside Al Gore. But his support for the Iraq war cost him the party's backing in 2006 and he lost his state's Senate primary to Ned Lamont.

In the general election, Lieberman ran as an independent and won.