WASHINGTON — Barack Obama has long presented himself as a hybrid -- at once a liberal advocate and a post-partisan bridge-builder, a romantic out to change the world and a pragmatist grounded in the realities of politics.
The tension in Obama's political makeup is coming into clearer view as he moves closer to governing.
On Tuesday, some of his liberal activist supporters reacted with anger when Senate Democrats -- at Obama's urging -- turned aside attempts to strip Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) of a committee chairmanship. The liberals, and some senators, had wanted to punish Lieberman for campaigning on behalf of John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee.
An independent who is allied with Democrats, Lieberman is reviled as a turncoat by Democratic loyalists and despised by antiwar activists for his support of the Iraq war. So his continued presence in a high-profile post was a bitter disappointment to many of the same people who enthusiastically embraced Obama.
"Outrageous," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who pulled out a copy of Lieberman's speech to the Republican National Convention to read aloud passages to reporters staked outside a meeting of Senate Democrats.
Liberal blogs buzzed with fury. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, editor of the Daily Kos website, denounced Democrats as tone-deaf and "completely unable to understand" how they earned their majority.
The liberal anger, however, did not include signs of diminished enthusiasm for the president-elect. That may provide Obama with more room to maneuver as he uses the aftermath of his election victory to send conciliatory signals.
Obama is trying to heal the rift within the party by reaching out to his primary election opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), by considering her for secretary of State. Wasting little time after the election, he conferred with McCain on Monday, in one of the earliest post-campaign meetings to take place between White House rivals.
The steps reflect an inclination toward consensus-building and the political center evident throughout Obama's life.
Though a favorite of liberal bloggers, he posted an essay defending Democratic senators who voted to confirm Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. against vitriolic attacks on the Internet.
When Lieberman faced a challenge from the antiwar left in 2006, Obama campaigned on his behalf during the primary. Later, he gave eventual Democratic nominee Ned Lamont only an e-mail endorsement late in the general election campaign while Lieberman ran as an independent.
