Joe Lieberman has gone around the bend. Where are the people of Connecticut on the actions of this ego-maniacal “brussel sprout* and “raving schmucK” and his obstructionism of health care reform?
He was for Medicare buy-in, until it was actually proposed and had the potential to actually bring health care reform to fruition. Once this possibility dawned, Lieberman found his true stripes as an obstructionist to the Democratic party who is looking out for his insurance buddies and for his pocketbook interests as expressed through the pressure of his unregistered pharmaceutical lobbyist-wife Hadassah.
In this 3 month old interview re-released by the Plum Line, Joe Lieberman touts the health care benefits of Medicare expansion for those under 65 and over 50 or 55. Yet yesterday, Lieberman told Reid that he would filibuster the health care reform bill if Medicare buy-in is kept in the bill. Here’s what Joe had to say:
“My proposals were to basically expand the existing successful public health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid…“When it came to Medicare I was very focused on a group — post 50, maybe more like post 55. People who have retired early, or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose their health insurance and they’re too young to qualify for Medicare.
“What I was proposing was that they have an option to buy into Medicare early and again on the premise that that would be less expensive than the enormous cost. If you’re 55 or 60 and you’re without health insurance and you go in to try to buy it, because you’re older … you’re rated as a risk so you pay a lot of money.”
Has he no shame? How can this man live with himself? Is he so self-centered and egotistical that he cares nothing for the American people?
Although I don’t often condone religious blackmail, in his case it is merited. It is time for other Jews to “disown” him and punish him for his threats. Apparently I’m not the only one suggesting this as this article by Jeffery Goldberg in The Atlantic, reveals the following political action:
“Dan Baum, late of the New Yorker, has sent around an e-mail to every Jew on his list (yes, you read that correctly), asking his fellow tribesmen to write to their wayward brother, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, in order to let him know he’s a raving schmuck for threatening to filibuster health care reform legislation. “
Not only are threats from his religious community necessary, but it is well past time that Democratic Senators not only threaten, but actually remove Joe Lieberman’s Senate Chairmanship of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Given his position on health care, his embrace of McCain in the last Presidential campaign and his slap in the face of the American public, he does not deserve the honor or even more importantly the power that this position entails.
If social and political ostracism can get this man in line, let’s use this and every other tool to get him behind real health care reform.
*See Gail Collins editorial in The New York Times:
“Do the brussels sprouts all look like little versions of Joe Lieberman threatening a filibuster?”
Would you punish all the people opposed to this healthcare plan or just Sen. Lieberman? I seem to recall the Democrats throwing him out last year. Is banishment not enough?
This is one thing about a two-party system that I do not like: you are either for ‘us’ or you are one of ‘them’. While the Republican Party has been BORG’d , I would hope there is still room for ‘PartiallyBlue’ Democrats.
PB, what exactly has Sen. Lieberman been banished from? He’s chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, and he was never booted from the Democratic caucus in the Senate. Sen. Lieberman wasn’t “thrown out” of the Democratic Party either; he left of his own accord because he was more concerned about holding onto his seat than he was about respecting the wishes of Democratic primary voters in CT.
And let me just say this: there’s plenty of room in the Democratic Party for “partially blue” Democrats, but the issue here is Sen. Lieberman’s hypocrisy, not the fact that he’s a moderate.
So running Ned Lamont against Joe Lieberman was not kicking Joe out? Sen. Joe was shown the door by the Democratic Party and you say that he walked through of his own accord? Didn’t Democrats turn out in droves for Sen. Joe and refute this maneuver by the Democratic Party? Perhaps Sen. Joe is truly reflecting the values of the Connecticut Ds after all.
Good to hear that PartiallyBlue Dems can still come into the tent.
PB, since when was it not okay to challenge a sitting incumbent if you happen to be a member of the incumbent’s party? Joe Lieberman wasn’t “kicked out” of the Democratic Party; voters were given a choice and they chose someone else.
They are threatening to recall Lieberman as we speak:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30627.html
Eh, that’s a dead end.
Connecticut has no process in place to recall a U.S. Senator, so Lieberman is safe until the next election.
That was my take as well.
Although there’s now a report Sen. Lieberman won’t rule out running as a Republican for his seat in 2012, so that certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to things.
Joe Lieberman the obstructionist. That’s funny.
Really, though, your argument won’t have much ring to it until you blame Bush for Lieberman’s change of heart.
Yeah, I agree. There’s nothing obstructionist about a filibuster, Cindy.
Joe will probably give in to Obama tommarrow.