Last week we saw Senate Majority “Leader” Harry Reid wrap both arms tightly around Joe Lieberman.

“I can tell you Sen. Reid had talked to me a few times and said he knows there will be talk if we get more than 51 Democrats next year,” Lieberman said. “As far as he is concerned, I will retain my seniority, etc., no matter how many Democrats there are next year.”

Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley, confirmed Lieberman’s account.

This inexplicable and indefensible response from Reid prompted outrage among real Democrats around the country. Not surprisingly, though, this anger towards Lieberman was not limited to Democrats outside of Washington.

To wit, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was rightly pissed:

In a March 30 appearance on ABC’s “This Week” program, Lieberman suggested that the Democratic Party left him.

“The Democratic Party changed. The Democratic Party today was not the party it was in 2000. It’s not the (former President) Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government.”

“It’s been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist and basically … very, very hyperpartisan,” Lieberman said. “So it pains me.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said in response to Lieberman’s remarks. “It’s self-serving.”

Indeed Senator Harkin. Glad to see that some long standing Senators can see Lieberman for what he is…and say so in public.