Everybody is focused on the fact that Olympia Snowe will vote for the Baucus bill. This has obscured the news that Joe Lieberman announced today (on Don Imus, natch) that he's opposed:
IMUS: Do you support the Baucus bill?
LIEBERMAN: Not, not, no. I mean, not the way it is now.
IMUS: Ok, what about it don’t you like?
LIEBERMAN: Well, here’s my concern, as I watch the way it took shape. And it goes back to these two things we’re trying to do at once. I’m afraid that in the end, the Baucus bill is actually going to raise the price of insurance for most of the people in the country because most of the people in our country have health insurance, either private or Medicare or Medicaid or veteran’s benefits.
Think Progress, which caught this, notes that Connecticut is home to numerous insurance companies, and of course insurers have suddenly gone to war on health care reform. That may be a factor. My read is that Lieberman remains furious at the party for endorsing Democratic nominee Ned Lamont for the Senate in 2006 over Lieberman's independent candidacy. Lieberman, of course, campaigned hard against Obama in 2008, and probably would enjoy the vindication of seeing Obama's presidency fail
For months I've been predicting that the Democrats will pass health care reform because they're not going to cut their own throat. But Lieberman is an independent. A failed Democratic presidency wouldn't necessarily bring him down with it in 2012. It might even help. So I may have made a major error focusing on red state Democrats and overlooking Lieberman.
In that context, Snowe's vote is crucial.
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COMMENTS (8)
Lieberman will be run out on a rail if he is the one who brings the whole thing down, I just can't see how he stands the remotest chance in hell of being re-elected in 2012 so I am afraid he might choose to take it all down with him, but he is an egomaniac so he might think he can win but he has to stick with the Democrats to do it.
If he does vote against it now, he should be out, stripped of all his committee posts, let him caucus with the Republicans for the last few years of his term, so hopefully he might consider being relegated to the back benchs, an outcast, as not to be worth it.
Lieberman will be run out on a rail if he is the one who brings the whole thing down, I just can't see how he stands the remotest chance in hell of being re-elected in 2012 so I am afraid he might choose to take it all down with him, but he is an egomaniac so he might think he can win but he has to stick with the Democrats to do it.
If he does vote against it now, he should be out, stripped of all his committee posts, let him caucus with the Republicans for the last few years of his term, so hopefully he might consider being relegated to the back benchs, an outcast, as not to be worth it.
I thought Lieberman was a Democrat again, and that's why he got to keep his committee posts. Doesn't he owe Obama?
If he does vote no, I'm with Blackton.
I thought Lieberman was a Democrat again, and that's why he got to keep his committee posts. Doesn't he owe Obama?
If he does vote no, I'm with Blackton.
So I guess Don Imus's 30-year history of broadcasting anti-Semitic statements, including several times calling for various "Jew boys" to be sent to "the gas chamber" doesn't particularly bother Sen Joe Lieberman (R-CT). Go figure.
So I guess Don Imus's 30-year history of broadcasting anti-Semitic statements, including several times calling for various "Jew boys" to be sent to "the gas chamber" doesn't particularly bother Sen Joe Lieberman (R-CT). Go figure.
I don't hear anybody getting on Snowe because she's bucking her party - why rag Lieberman? The Baucus bill is hardly a slam-dunk winner, and we all know it. What's wrong with independent thought?
I don't hear anybody getting on Snowe because she's bucking her party - why rag Lieberman? The Baucus bill is hardly a slam-dunk winner, and we all know it. What's wrong with independent thought?
I think the Connecticut/Insurance HQ detail might be more than a slight factor in his decision. Which not only makes Joe Lieberman entirely dependent (butchie), but if he were to vote against the bill, then the historical Joe Lieberman narrative would see him as the shadowy villian who dodged his party to embolden the worst president ever on a disastrous and illegitamite warplan, and then rode out of town with the evil insurance companies right around the time stomachs began to swell. Joe Lieberman would have done it all for the money.
Now that is a man who loves his tribe and all of their struggle against the money/evil canards they have faced. Holy mackerel.
I think the Connecticut/Insurance HQ detail might be more than a slight factor in his decision. Which not only makes Joe Lieberman entirely dependent (butchie), but if he were to vote against the bill, then the historical Joe Lieberman narrative would see him as the shadowy villian who dodged his party to embolden the worst president ever on a disastrous and illegitamite warplan, and then rode out of town with the evil insurance companies right around the time stomachs began to swell. Joe Lieberman would have done it all for the money.
Now that is a man who loves his tribe and all of their struggle against the money/evil canards they have faced. Holy mackerel.
So - does Dodd vote no on the same theory, dylan? Somehow I don't think so.
So - does Dodd vote no on the same theory, dylan? Somehow I don't think so.
Fair enough butchie, but Lieberman lost all good will among most of us here years ago. He has proven to be deeply dishonest quite often - loathsomely so at times. Obama saved him for bloodless reasons, but I don't feel like I owe the guy a thing. Eff him.
Fair enough butchie, but Lieberman lost all good will among most of us here years ago. He has proven to be deeply dishonest quite often - loathsomely so at times. Obama saved him for bloodless reasons, but I don't feel like I owe the guy a thing. Eff him.
The Washington-Wall Street production of Healthcare Reform unfolds on its way to the inevitable denouement.
Act I: On The Campaign Trail
Obama and Clinton in a slugfest over who can insure the most people while slaying the greedy bastards in the healthcare industry once and for all
Act II: Getting Started
Obama insists that, Fox News or not, healthcare reform will be tackled and pinned to the mat by his administration this year
Act III: The Gang's All Here
All the players in Washington and New York line up their ducks....and their IOUs...as the "haggling" begins
Act IV: Stalking "The Great Compromise"
Max Baucus is chosen as the point man in creating a bill that is exactly, uh, halfway brtween Main ... view full comment
The Washington-Wall Street production of Healthcare Reform unfolds on its way to the inevitable denouement.
Act I: On The Campaign Trail
Obama and Clinton in a slugfest over who can insure the most people while slaying the greedy bastards in the healthcare industry once and for all
Act II: Getting Started
Obama insists that, Fox News or not, healthcare reform will be tackled and pinned to the mat by his administration this year
Act III: The Gang's All Here
All the players in Washington and New York line up their ducks....and their IOUs...as the "haggling" begins
Act IV: Stalking "The Great Compromise"
Max Baucus is chosen as the point man in creating a bill that is exactly, uh, halfway brtween Main Street and Wall Street
Act V: Closing In
Inexorably the "fair and balanced" reform proposal wends its way towards Obama's desk as heroes and villians rise and fall
Act VI: The Home Stretch
Now we all sit back and wait to see just how many "progressive" changes are in the final bill.
Will this be another triumph for liberal socialism?!!!
gw