By: Glenn Thrush

As critics complain that he got off with a “slap on the wrist,” Joe Lieberman said Wednesday that he doesn’t regard his loss of a spot on the Environment and Public Works Committee as punishment for backing John McCain over Barack Obama in the presidential race.

“I don’t view it as a sanction,” a relaxed and genial Lieberman told Politico as he walked through the Capitol Wednesday.

Instead, Lieberman suggested he relinquished his seat on the committee voluntarily — “in the spirit of cooperation” – after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked him to help free up room for the committee for incoming senators.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats voted to allow Lieberman to retain his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee despite his support for McCain – and attacks on Obama – during the presidential campaign.

That kept Lieberman in the Democrats’ conference – bringing them to within two votes of a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority.

The deal, reportedly arranged by Reid and Obama, did contain one element that members construed as punishment: Lieberman was kicked off the EPW, a committee on which he’s served for two decades.

Few of the senators emerging from Tuesday’s closed-door meeting shared Lieberman’s interpretation – some were appalled that he got off so easy, but none expressed the opinion that the EPW actions weren’t intended to send a message to Lieberman.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, who wanted to Lieberman stripped of his homeland security post, decried the loss of the environment committee as “a slap on the wrist.”

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