Lieberman Twists the Knife

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20091027_lieberman_twists_the_knife/

Lieberman Twists the Knife

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091027_lieberman_twists_the_knife/

Posted on Oct 27, 2009

By Robert Scheer

Is there a more hypocritical figure in American politics than Joe Lieberman? The Connecticut senator declared Tuesday that he would support a filibuster of any health care reform bill that has a public option—even the version with the “trigger” compromise accepted by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe—because it might cost money.

“I think that a lot of people may think that the public option is free,” said Lieberman, one of the Senate’s big spenders, in a suddenly frugal mood. “It’s not. It’s going to cost the taxpayers and people that have health insurance now, and if it doesn’t, it’s going to add terribly to our national debt.”

This from a senator who, as much as anyone, helped run up the national debt since 9/11 by pushing to raise the military budget to its highest level since World War II. It is a budget inflated by enormous expenditures on high-tech weaponry irrelevant to combating terror, such as the $2-billion-a-piece submarines—produced in his home state of Connecticut—that he claimed were needed to combat al-Qaida, a landlocked enemy holed up in caves. The same week that he and others in Congress passed a $680-billion defense bill larded with pork of the sort he has always supported, Lieberman is worried about the impact of a very limited public option on the debt.

Lieberman, whose state is also home to insurance companies that are opposed to any consumer-friendly medical coverage alternative, boldly stated that his opposition to even the most limited version of a public option should not be surprising: “I think my colleagues know for a long time that I’ve been opposed to a government-created, government-run insurance company.” Perhaps during his filibuster to prevent a vote on the public option Lieberman can square that position with his longtime support of the massive government–run insurance programs Medicare and Social Security.

Maybe he can also take that time to justify his strong support for the government bailout of troubled banking and insurance companies that has tripled the federal deficit this year to $1.4 trillion. Is AIG not now a “government-run insurance company,” and doesn’t the $185 billion of taxpayer money tossed at that sorry enterprise add up to more than twice the yearly cost of the health reform package? And that’s without considering the trillions of tax dollars put into play to shore up Citigroup, Bank of America, GM, Chrysler and those other suddenly socialized sectors of American corporate life.

If a scant public choice in health care is so threatening to our way of life, because health care alone must be kept a pristine captive of the most destructive impulses of an unbridled free market, then why not privatize Medicare as well as the publicly financed health care programs for government workers—including those in Congress like Lieberman, veterans and the active military? And while we’re at it, why not revive that Republican fantasy, popular in their ranks just a few years ago, of privatizing Social Security by turning the most effective government program over to the vagaries of the stock market?

I do continue to begrudgingly respect the consistency, if not the wisdom, of libertarians like Ron Paul who oppose all of this big-government intrusion into the economy. At least their belief in the efficiency of the free market, affirmed in opposition to the banking bailout, is not compromised by a willingness to throw trillions in taxpayer dollars into backing the riskiest of corporate bets. But it is not possible to feel anything but loathing for those like Lieberman who vote for every big government program, no matter how wasteful, in support of big business, but draw the line at a program designed to cut medical costs for the ordinary citizens they have been sworn to serve.

Lieberman’s threat to thwart a vote on sorely needed health care legislation, complete with a public option that a majority of Americans have consistently supported, should spell the end of his connection with the Democratic caucus. It should also cost him the committee chairmanship he was granted in order to guarantee the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. But a filibuster, which would expose Lieberman and the others as irresponsible wreckers of essential reform, is not the worst outcome. The surrender by the Democratic leadership to this blackmail by the party’s disgraced former vice presidential candidate would be a blow from which the party would not deserve to recover.

Get with it, CT - he's your love child.

But I don't think Obama will mind if Joe manages to torpedo the public option.

Whoops, look what rascally old joe did. That joe, he's such a kidder.

Oh, you're dying? My bad, I shouldn't laugh. *chuckle* but old joe did get us all pretty good!

That pretty much says it.

Would it help if we donated to his exploratory committee?

"Attorney General Richard Blumenthal remains popular, and if he ever decided to run against Lieberman, Blumenthal would likely win in a route. In a head-to-head race, Blumenthal leads Lieberman in the poll by 58% to 30%."http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/diary/11068/

But that was a poll done in February so it might be tighter (or not) now. His chances are good but he has not announced anything yet, keep your fingers crossed.

It's up to the people of the state of CN to get rid of him. They had a chance last time and they didn't do it. It's Democrats who have given him his position and his voice in these matters, they have empowered him and he is just being the snake that he is.

Reality really bites the big one, doesn't it?

Pretend Lieberman is not a Democrat, because he isn't. Pretend you cannot depend upon Lieberman to consistently support Democratic causes, because you can't. Imagine that it is Democrats that have given Lieberman his voice, his position, his power because they have.

Dirty little weasel is what he is.

thoroughly for this. First Stephanie Miller, who actually called him, and told his staffer that he was on the radio. She asked if he was okay with it and he said no, but then he said he would forward her message to Senator Lieberman. Then Thom Hartmann spent most of his show really criticizing him about everything. I have never heard Thom attack anyone on the left wing this vociferously. Then Ed Schultz had a go at him and just as vehement. I haven't had a chance yet to see what Keith and Rachel have to say. However, if the LW media keeps it up, I'd say Holy Joe will be history in the next election.

But when I think of how the party supported Lieberman over Lamont, who actually won the primary, I just cringe.

It seems we are going to have to identify all the snakes in the grass in our party and expose them for the corporate traitors that they are.

Lieberman has very powerful friends.

from the DLCers and the corporatists.

It's an ugly fight, but.... obviously the life of our party (and our nation!) depend on it!

A number of years ago, there was a group of liberal Dems in Colorado who worked specifically on this... reclaiming the state party organization from the DLCers. They have made progress.

his chairmanship.

It's only right.

Joe and his wife are filthy rich off the health industry.