Reid "very Disappointed" In Lieberman's Speech

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Nevada Democrat was “very disappointed” with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., after previous pledges from Lieberman not to attack Barack Obama.

“[Sen. Lieberman] appeared to go out of his way to distort Sen. Obama's record of bipartisan achievements in the senate,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Wednesday morning.

“He can give all the partisan speeches he wants, but as a majority of the American people have made very clear, the last thing this country needs is another four years of the same old failed Bush-McCain polices of the past.”

Aides said Reid was surprised by the tone and tenor of Lieberman’s remarks after previous pledges from the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee not to attack Obama if he attended the Republican Convention.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month, Lieberman said: “I’m not going to go to that convention — the Republican convention — and spend my time attacking Barack Obama.”

However, on Tuesday night, Lieberman came out swinging at the Democratic nominee, saying Obama “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.”

The speech will only further fuel rumors that Lieberman will be removed from his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee if Democrats pick up seats in the Senate this fall, among other possible punishments.