The Pardoner-in-Chief

President-elect Obama is throwing his arm around Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from 86in the Connecticut senator from the Democratic Party.

As reported by MSNBC.COM,here, Obama is more interested in creating a sense of bi-partisanship than in engaging in intra-party squabbling. Although it is a noble gesture by Obama, his move puts Reid in an unenviable position for how is he to maintain party discipline when he can't boot a Democrat who spoke in favor of the Republican candidate at the Republican convention.

I admit that the concept of "party discipline" is alien to the Democrats, but if Reid can't toss Joe out of the party, he has to take the rogue Dem to the woodshed for a sound trashing. Admittedly, Joe votes almost a straight Democratic line on all the issues except the Iraq war, but he committed the unpardonable sin of speaking bad about another Democrat and in campaigning for the Republican. Of course, Joe will lose his committee chairmanships, and perhaps come January his office will be a former janitor's closet, but despite Reid's desires, Joe Lieberman will still sit with the Democrats.

It seems that Barack Obama has just issued his first pardon, and he hasn't yet taken the oath of office.