by Glenn Greenwald
at Salon

Harry Reid was on The Daily Show last night (to promote his book, ironically entitled The Good Fight) and said that Joe Lieberman “supports us on virtually everything except the war.” This is exactly what Reid has said repeatedly about Lieberman (”Joe Lieberman is my friend, and he is a good Democrat, votes with us on everything, except the war. So Joe Lieberman is easy to work with”). Two weeks ago, a NYT article on Lieberman quoted Reid praising him and then immediately added:

A member of the Senate Democratic leadership, who insisted on not being identified, said: “The bloggers want us to get rid of him. It ain’t happening.” He added: “We need every vote. He’s with us on everything but the war.”

Leave aside the insulting absurdity of talking about “the war” as though it’s just one garden-variety political issue out of many. And also leave aside that Lieberman happens also not to be “voting with the Democrats” on the small matter of the presidential election. Beyond that, this claim that Lieberman votes with Democrats “on everything but the war” — made repeatedly by Reid [and two weeks ago in the NYT by "a member of the Senate Democratic leadership" too scared to be quoted (if it's not Reid)] — is a total falsehood, but nonetheless quite revealing about how the Senate Democratic leadership thinks.

More at Salon.com