This Is What It Comes Down To: Lieberman Is A Spiteful Little Toad
Obwon
This Is What It Comes Down To: Lieberman Is A Spiteful
Little Toad
Who Will Kill Health-Care Reform.
Posted: 14 Dec 2009 07:00 AM PST
So it comes down to this
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/joe_lieberman_lets_not_make_a.html
Joe Lieberman got his widdle feelings hurt, and so Joe will
do anything to get back at the mean liberals who hurt his
feelings - even if it means hundreds of thousands of people
have to die without health care.
Doesn't that make him a sociopath? And doesn't that make the
Democrats co-conspirators?
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/13/lieberman-tells-reid-to-h_n_390416.html
and Roll Call
http://www.rollcall.com/news/41492-1.html
are both reporting that Joe Lieberman notified Harry Reid
that he will filibuster health-care reform if the final bill
includes an expansion of Medicare. Previously, Lieberman had
been cool to the idea, saying he wanted to make sure it
wouldn't increase the deficit or harm Medicare's solvency.
That comforted some observers, as the CBO is expected to say
it will do neither. Someone must have given Lieberman a
heads-up on that, as he's decided to make his move in
advance of the CBO score, the better to make sure the facts
of the policy couldn't impede his opposition to it.
To put this in context, Lieberman was originally invited to
participate in the process that led to the Medicare buy-in.
His opposition would have killed it before liberals invested
in the idea. Instead, he skipped the meetings and is forcing
liberals to give up yet another compromise. Each time he
does that, he increases the chances of the bill's failure
that much more. And it's hard to imagine there's a policy
rationale here, as he decided against even bothering to wait
for the CBO's analysis before moving against this idea. At
this point, Lieberman is just torturing liberals. That is to
say, he's willing to directly cause the deaths of hundreds
of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral
score.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411588.html
[...] The final path would be to try the reconciliation,
the parliamentary procedure that would allow Democrats to
pass chunks of health care reform by a simple up or down
vote. There are a host of hurdles that come with going down
this route, including questions over what, exactly, could be
passed. And at this point both the White House and Reid's
office seem hesitant to use the procedural tool, even after
Lieberman's latest round of opposition.
Reid could also try and find another compromise, but
it's not clear there are many of those left. And at this
point, the underlying dynamic seems to be that Lieberman
will destroy any compromise the left likes. That, in fact,
seems to be the compromise: Lieberman will pass the bill if
he can hurt liberals while doing so. From Lieberman's
perspective, the compromise is killing the compromise.
Chris Bowers points out the Democrats have put Holy Joe in
this position:
http://www.openleft.com/diary/16470/lieberman-seizes-control-of-the-democratic-senate-caucus
Nothing Lieberman is doing would be possible without the
ongoing support of the majority of the Democratic caucus. If
Democratic Senators wanted to punish Lieberman for his
consistent transgressions against the party, they could. If
Democrats wanted to use reconciliation, and just circumvent
him altogether, they could do that, too. But they are not
going to do either.
As such, Lieberman is simply taking the power that is
being handed to him by the rest of the caucus. Since he
knows that Senate Democrats won't ever punish him, and won't
ever circumvent him, he now has free reign to dictate
whatever legislation he wants, get tons of face time with
the White House and Senate leadership, regularly be the top
story on news outlets around the country, receive millions
in campaign contributions, and appease his Republican base
(at this point, most of Lieberman's supporters are
Republicans). It is a great deal for Lieberman, and it would
not be possible without the ongoing consent of the majority
of the Democratic Senate caucus.
Since we have already defeated Lieberman in a Democratic
primary, there is clearly nothing more as progressive
activists to threaten Lieberman. What we need to start doing
is taking action against the Democrats who enable Lieberman
and his ilk. If other Senate Democrats are not going to do
anything about Lieberman taking control of the entire
caucus, then really, what is the difference between those
other Senators and Joe Lieberman?
Never though I would echo George W. Bush, but we have
reached the point where it is time to stop differentiating
between problematic Senators like Joseph Lieberman and the
other Senate Democrats who enable them.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file:
Download Now