National - by Ned Resnikoff on Thursday, October 29, 2009 8:00 - 8 Comments - 386 views
The above is Joe Lieberman using an argument he would later flatly contradict to explain why he is threatening not to vote for cloture of the public-option-including Senate health care bill.
Remember, 60 votes are needed for cloture in the Senate, and there are exactly 60 members of the Democratic caucus. With Olympia Snow now saying she won’t cross party lines, not a single Republican is expected to vote for the bill, meaning that it needs all the Democratic caucus members for passage. Lieberman is one of the key swing votes, and, as is his wont, he’s milking this for as much as he can.
Weigel, who’s usually right about these things, thinks this is an empty threat being made to garner some attention, albeit an empty threat that’s still damaging.
Disclaimer: Longtime readers of the site may or may not know that I have something of a history with Lieberman, having grown up in Connecticut and interned for the Ned Lamont Senate campaign which snatched the Democratic nomination away from him. I’ve also been a fierce opponent of letting Lieberman maintain his seniority and committee chairmanship, and this is a perfect demonstration of why. President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid created this situation for themselves by refusing to bring the hammer down on a guy who will screw over virtually any progressive policy initiative that comes his way if there’s so much as a five-minute slot on Meet the Press in it for him.
You’d think by now they would have learned their lesson, but you would be wrong. Here’s Harry Reid, responding to Lieberman’s latest grandstand:
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.
See, even when Lieberman is stabbing him in the back over an issue that he’s staking his political future on, Reid just can’t resist the temptation to jam his tongue down the guy’s throat. He can’t find it within himself to even hint that there’s the tiniest possibility the DSCC might support the nominee of their own party in the 2012 CT Senate election if Lieberman keeps pulling this shit.
Which, even if he ultimately starts toeing the party line once he’s gotten the attention he craves, makes me less than optimistic about this bill breaking through a GOP filibuster. No wonder Evan Bayh, the second most contemptible opportunist in the Democratic caucus, feels free to openly fuck with party strategy; who’s going to respect a party leader that avoids precedented punitive measures in favor of passing out free hand jobs?
8 Comments
Richard Prince
This man need to be sent home from the Senate. Retired. Fired. Replaced.
Surekha Ratnatunga
I loved the Daily Beast headline for this story — “Traitor Joe.” And you are so right about Obama and Reid bringing this situation upon themselves. Obama let Lieberman off the hook by letting keep his homeland security chairmanship after campaigning for McCain in ‘08. What I cannot believe is that the Democratic party allowed him to do so without at least requiring him to vote with them on procedural matters (i.e. simply not filibustering democratic bills).
Steven Jean
Maybe Lieberman thinks the public option isn’t so great. There are other bills out there that are better than the bad policy compromises that the Democrats keep proposing for health care.
And Lieberman has voted with Democrats on most if not all procedural matters this year…so he’s been a loyal democrat on all the easy/good policy decisions this year.
I say more power to the Lieberman (he was a much better candidate then Ned Lamont anyway) for bucking his party and some of their terrible policies.
Steven: If this is a matter of principle, don’t you think he’d have been able to provide a coherent argument for it?
Also, you’re wrong. He hasn’t been a loyal Democrat–he’s abused his chairmanship to investigate bullshit, and chosen not to investigate actual crimes, instead opting to bash the people who do investigate them.
Steven Jean
He did have a coherent argument for it. It might be costly to taxpayers. If more people move into the exchanges and then into the public option than budget costs may rise and it would be on taxpayers to help finance it. It seems like some people blindly assume/believe that the public option is the only way to have universal health insurance
And he has been a loyal democrat. If you read what I said, I said on procedural matters. This includes clash for clunkers, SCHIP and the Lily Ledbetter Act among other things that Democrats supported.
Why is it bullshit when Russ Feingold (D-Wis) had the same concerns and accountability in the executive branch is a legitimate issue to think about concerning the abuses of the last administration.
Investigating the CIA is a waste of time…it does a major disservice to the institution and the country…why not investigate or prosecute Bush or Cheney who gave the directives.
I don’t know if you checked out the link in the first sentence of this post, but Lieberman’s “fiscal responsibility” spiel was one he completely contradicted the second time around.
As for Russ Feingold, he’s wrong on this issue. I’m with him on a lot of his legislation, but sometimes he’s way too quick to buy into total nonsense. And this accusation that the “czars” are accruing too much power is ridiculous–czar isn’t even an official title. It’s a nickname for people in jobs that are by and large run-of-the-mill executive branch positions.
On the CIA: How do you think the DoJ would start conducting an investigation of that scope? It begins with upper-level management of the CIA who signed off on torture, and the White House’s own personal counsel. Any investigation that starts by digging into Bush and Cheney will get buried by Obama and Republican leadership–neither of whom are particularly enthusiastic about doing anything at all.
Gene Francis
Is he only upstanding if he votes the way you want him to. I know a lot of people that feel the same way. Maybe he just feels like the public option is bad–and maybe he is right!!!
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Now the battle REALLY begins! Check out “Healthcare Fighting (Kung Fu Mix)” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nc1VwJOb9Y