Can Harry count?

Sen. Charles Schumer holds Reid up as a vote-counting prodigy [about 1:55 into video]:

"Leader Reid, and there's nobody better at counting the votes than he is, he's a wizard at it . . ."

Really? Tevi Troy on the Corner thinks the wizard might want to check his work:

These announcements lead one to wonder what kind of math Reid is using; he will need 60 votes to overcome a planned Republican filibuster, and so far his count has worsened by two.

That would be Snowe and Lieberman, who's talking filibuster. Evan Bayh, who is uncommitted, makes three. See Michelle Malkin for more.

See Rich Lowry for his explanation of Lieberman's position. Bottom line:

Lieberman shows how any Democratic defection is now "game over" for Harry Reid. He can't lose any Democrat (assuming he doesn't win Snowe back). This will put all the swing-vote Democrats in a very awkward position because they all are decisive votes and Obamacare can be pinned on them.

Anyway, Lieberman's move is very bad news for Reid. Maybe Democrats can try to purge Lieberman in a hateful campaign of vituperation. Oh yeah—they already tried that.

Dana Milbank doesn't get Reid's new math, either, and suspects there's more going on here:

Then there was the small matter of lacking the votes to pass the public option. "Do you feel 100 percent sure right now that you have the 60 votes?" CNN's Dana Bash inquired. Reid looked down at the lectern. He looked up at the ceiling. He chuckled. He put his palms together as if in prayer. Then he spoke. "My caucus believes strongly there should be health-care reform" was the non sequitur he offered.

Bash reminded the leader that she had asked him "particularly on this idea of a public option."

Instead of answering, Reid, with a Zen expression, looked to the back of the room to solicit a question from somebody else. But Bash piped up again. "Senator Reid, with all due respect, is it possible to answer the question on whether or not you have the votes?"

"I believe we clearly will have the support of my caucus to move to this bill and start legislating," he replied, which also didn't answer the question.

By this time, Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, had one foot on the podium, as if he were ready to rush the stage and whisk his boss to safety.

Of course, everybody knew that Reid didn't have the votes. That's why he was standing there alone, a Gang of One. As Democratic aides described it, the moment had less to do with health-care policy than with Nevada politics -- and one vulnerable senator's justifiable fear of liberal anger. Now, if the public option unexpectedly survives in the Senate, Reid keeps his hero status on the left. If it fails, he at least gets credit for trying. By the Nobel committee's revised standards, his aspirations might even earn him the prizes in medicine and economics.

And so on.

Linked at Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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