Interestingly, Harry Reid seemed unfazed by Joe Lieberman’s threat to oppose cloture on a final vote on health care if it included a public option.

“Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid’s problems,” Reid told reporters at his weekly press conference.

During a Q&A session with reporters, Reid offered a fairly spirited defense of Lieberman, signaling perhaps that he doesn’t believe Lieberman will ultimately be an obstacle–or at least that he doesn’t want to tip his hat: “I don’t have anyone that I’ve worked harder with, have more respect for, in the Senate than Joe Lieberman. As you know, he’s my friend. There are a lot of senators–Democrat and Republicans–who don’t like [parts of this bill]… Sen. Lieberman will let us get on the bill, and he’ll be involved in the amendment process.”

Indeed, as of yesterday, it looked like there were other Senators who would be more of a problem on the health care bill. Blanche Lincoln told the Arkansas Farm Bureau that she still doesn’t support a public option, though she didn’t say whether she’d join a filibuster. Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad are withholding support until they see a CBO score. And while Evan Bayh stated his cloture vote is not tied to the public option, but he did signal that Reid’s bill could have problems on the Senate floor, and as the eternal builder of ConservaDem coalitions he’s in a position to know.

We are months away from a final vote, with a motion to proceed probably not coming up until November 11 or so in the Senate, so it’s a bit premature to discuss specific Senators “killing” the bill. But Reid is being far too cavalier about Lieberman’s threat. It was a direct assault on the bill.

It could be that Reid is putting one foot in front of the other. Lieberman has signed off on the motion to proceed, which other Senators have not yet. Reid may be more focused on corraling Democratic support for the initial test vote at this point.