"I think Obama has done the right thing. To the extent that Presidents use the bully pulpit to encourage legislation and form their own political alliances to do so (like Blue Dogs), reaching out a hand to a potential ally makes sense."

"And it's entirely appropriate since Obama is a Senator -- it's not a separation of powers argument any more than if Clinton made similar recommendation with one eye towards her own political future. All Senators get one vote, but not all Senators are equal."

PD, do you realize that these two paragraphs are contradictory? In the first, Obama is acting as president-elect, and making arrangements for his term as president. In the second, he's just a senator.

In my personal opinion, it's important for Reid to slap down Lieberman, for party discipline. When somebody has repeated acted against you, and is no longer untouchable (as Lieberman was in the last Congress), if you *give* him valuable things like the chairmanship of a powerful committe, you're making yourself look weak. A bunch of Democratic senators would have excellent reason to ask why they weren't being rewarded for being loyal. They'd also have reason to figure that disloyalty would pay better. This was pointed out by an analyst writing in the early 1990's about the Clinton administration's relationship to Congress, that he lacked any power to punish opposition in the Democratic Congress, and had to bribe people. Once the neutrals received favors, many loyal people reevaluated their loyalty.

In addition, Reid now has a second reason to slap Lieberman hard - the president has meddled (Obama is acting as president elect here, not just as a senator). The Democrats in Congress need to support President Obama, but not as lackeys.

We face possibly millions of rules...

Keep this as a marker... when Obama, and the Democrats in Congress start overstepping their constitutional limit in the pursuit of leftism/socialism, will Greenwald be as indignant? We all know better.

But maybe PD Shaw has something here... Maybe it really is just a "kabuki dance" we are watching. I do not for a second think Harry Reid does anything (at this pt in time) without BOs approval. As Dave S said:

A sitting president has been the de facto head of his party for as long as I can remember.

This is especially true right after an election that saw an expansion of the Dem majorities.

We will never know... kabuki dance? Reality? Who knows? He is good...

All I know is, Joe Lieberman better watch his ass.

200,000 Rules!

and to think in the beginning we started with just one, damned serpent!

I'm pretty certain I read that in a few places this morning - including over at Political Animal with Steve Bennen.

Otherwise, Obama should have the same input as any other Senator.

All but a handful of these things are run by federal agencies and bureaus through the quasi-legislative processes of rule making and regulation rather than by Acts of Congress. The president and his designated representatives run these bureaucracies on a day-to-day basis with Congress acting only in reactive mode — if at all — through the oversight process. In other words, we’ve stood the Constitution on its head.

Yes! According to the LSU registry of government organizations, there are now 1,177 agencies, committees, boards, bureaus and commissions in the US government, not counting the Congressional Committees, of course. We are ruled by 10,000 burocrats.

I don't think Obama is wrong in saying what he wants-I just don't think he should have any say in what happens.

Personally, while Lieberman may be the source of much hatred from the left, it is stupid for the left to ostracize or punish him, when he really is with them on most issues. Not to mention it looks kind of petty-maybe to some it isn't, but it looks petty to me.

In this case, it's not hard to fathom; He's concerned that Lieberman gets to keep his seat even though in Greenwald's fevered mind, he's not liberal enough, particularly as regards the war on terror and the defense of Israel and thereby congress isn't liberal enough, either.