'Regret' Not Enough: Brokaw Calls Lieberman On Lack Of 'Apology'

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Tom Brokaw: talk show host or DNC enforcer?  Barack Obama and Harry Reid were willing to let bygones be bygones, letting Joe Lieberman keep his Homeland Security Committee chairmanship. 

But Lieberman's professed "regret" for statements he made in the course of supporting John McCain for president wasn't good enough for Brokaw.  Interviewing the senator on Meet The Press today, Brokaw pointedly observed that he hadn't heard the word "apology" for Lieberman's lèse majesté.  Brokaw broached the subject by asserting Lieberman needed to be held "accountable."

TOM BROKAW: You've always as a public servant held other people accountable.  You were the only one who spoke out on the floor against Bill Clinton during the time of the impeachment.  Holding yourself accountable, looking back over the last six weeks, two months or so, what are the statements you most regret?

Does Brokaw really mean to equate Clinton's lying to the American people with Lieberman's public expression of his preference of a candidate for office? 

JOE LIEBERMAN:  Well, I don't want to go into the details. Let me just say this.  I don't regret having supported John McCain, because I sincerely believed in his experience and his extraordinary record of working across party lines to get things done. But I do regret, as I said to the caucus and afterward publicly, there were some things I said in the heat of a campaign I wish I'd said more clearly.  There are other things, frankly, I wish I hadn't said at all.  That happens to all of us in the heat of a campaign.  But nonetheless, I regret it.

That wasn't good enough for Brokaw.  A bit later . . .

BROKAW:  I hear the word "regret" but not the word "apology."

Managing to smile through his answer, Lieberman resisted the natural impulse to suggest to his host what he might do with his proposed apology.

LIEBERMAN: Well, I do, I regret it, I mean [chuckles], I don't, you know, I'm going forward.  You can take from the word "regret" what you will.