U.S. Sen. Harry Reid keeps his own counsel. Over all the years we’ve been writing about him, we’ve offered him advice in print on numerous occasions, and we can’t think of even a single time that he’s taken it. It probably explains his political success.

But hope springs eternal, and thus we’ll do it once again.

Now, let first us say that we believe in free speech and free association, without qualification. Every citizen of the United States may believe whatever he wishes, and may express that belief with the full protection of our Constitution. There is no “but” at the end of this sentence. The right is absolute.

Private organizations, concurrently, have the right to set qualifications for their members. You can’t be a member of the Boy Scouts if you’re not a boy. You can’t join a Baptist church if you don’t believe in God. You’re not going to get far in a Mini Cooper car club if you drive a Camaro. See what we’re saying?

So, once all the convention speeches have faded away, once all the debates have been held, advertising aired, slogans chanted and votes cast, once we get through Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s, and once we witness the historic swearing-in of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States, together with a new, stronger majority in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, allow us to humbly suggest to Senate Majority Leader Reid a simple, new policy we think he ought to adopt in the upper house, and moreover will have the mathematical ability to adopt, if he so chooses:

Fuck Joe Lieberman.