Lieberman Riling Dems On Health Care But Is Major Player On Climate, Same-Sex Benefits

another 123 die, JOE! Senate democrats that work with JOE are toxic to the well being of America. Beware as you will feel the burn we are feeling!

Corporafornication is all I expect from Lieberman, and since he is now the leader of the democratic party, them as well.

But I told you six months ago that health care was the shoal upon which ship O'Bama would founder. Joe the Senator is just a big rock. When you are the Decider you can't go around askin' permission or you will get no respect!

I can't imagine that Lieberman wants to be known as "the man who killed health care." It would almost certainly be the end of his career. Why not tell him what the bill is going too be and force his hand.

Anything on which "Senator" Lieberman is running point will be a pile of shit when he's through. Fuck him now. Fuck him forever.

Is the thought here that Lieberman's successor would be less helpful to the Administration? Or is the thought here that, if stripped of his chairmanship, Lieberman would vote against his former party on gay rights and climate change legislation?

The former doesn't seem to be a reason to retain him. His successor, after all, will be an actual member of the Democratic Party. If it's the latter....

OK - I'm really dense. Why does anyone in the administration think that Chancellor Palpatine will come through on those other items he's working on? What is to keep him from pulling the rug out on any issue he chooses? He is apparently having a ball tormenting the Democrats, so why would he stop with health care reform with so much more material to work with?

Check me on this. democrats (as a group) selected to put Lieberman in charge of all this important stuff. Now, the reason democrats can't get anything done and have to beg Lieberman for every little thing is because Lieberman is in charge of all this important stuff.

I certainly hope the democrats don't think they can use their own decision to put Lieberman in charge of all this important stuff as an excuse for not accomplishing any of their campaign promises. This seems like an intentional built-in failure excuse.

This bill is the nail in the coffin for the Dems in 2010.

What a total disappointment they are!

Lieberman: He'll do for climate change and same-sex benefits what he's done for health care reform. Now there's an Obama slogan you can believe in.

It's embarrassing to hear progressives even allude to Lieberman as being potentially trustworthy on any progressive issue. It taints whatever moral rectitude remains in the movement. Recognizing that politics is a dirty business, Liberman has proven himself beyond the pale, and to invest trust in him reveals one to be a fool

What? We need him for the Ft. Hood investigation? Really? Why? And he's "arguably progressive" on climate change? That's the best anyone can say about him?

so joe will scuttle important issues like climate change and same sex benefits just to score cheap political points? and this is offered up as business as usual from a progressive news site?

excuse me while i vomit

And who expects him to cooperate on THOSE issues????

Lieberman cannot be trusted. He was for Medicare buy in three months ago and now he is against it. Today he is for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and tomorrow he will be against it. Anyone who thinks Lieberman will not do the same thing and reverse his position when the chips are down is an idiot. And worse, they are like the clinically insane who keep trying the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome when the same horrible results keep happening. It is painful to watch an entire political party do this to themselves.

Lieberman is a genius. He's now the most powerful man in America. I hate him, but he's a genius.

Who is the brilliant person who let JoeScrewUm get his fingers on any legislation? Why is he "running point" on anything we care about? The guy is a turncoat traitor, and as soon as the Obama people were in place and the Nov. elections were over, he got his hands on a bunch of stuff? Don't you watch kleptomaniacs a little more closely when they are around the goodies? Don't you watch your Groping Uncle more closely when he is around the kiddies? Why the HELL would anybody let JoeScrewUm anywhere near something important?

He gets Fort Hood because of his chairmanship and he's working with Graham and Kerry on his climate bill. Graham and Lieberscum were both staunch McCain supporters - who won the election again?

Joe Lieberman's name is mud. From this point on, nothing he says can be believed. He cannot be trusted. Period.

Let's take our chances and move on without him.

i just don't see how you let the most duplicitous man in the united states be a major player in anything. he cannot be trusted. he has no conscience. he has shown that in words and actions repeatedly. relying on him for anything is an invitation to disaster.

One just neve knows what way that Leiberman cat is going to to do they!

RT
www.total-privacy.es.tc

Kick sand in his face? Is that what they'd be doing, TPM? Really? Makes it sound like Joe's the 97 lb weakling and the big bad Dems are bullying the poor little guy, when the exact opposite is happening. What I hear being said in his defense sounds an awful lot like "he's too big (important) to fail."

For those supporting incrementalism...is there any line that we don't let Joe walk across? Seems to me he's not negotiating in good faith. This is not new with Joe, not a one-time event. So, we cave on this...what does he decide to "veto" next week? And the week after? Because I'm pretty sure he's not done with this, yet. And how many times do we capitulate?

I'm afraid disagree that "anything is better than nothing." Forcing people who already can't afford it to buy insurance from the very same companies who have pretty much caused the current dilemma without sweeping changes in the way those companies are regulated seems counterproductive. And once "something" gets passed, Congress will declare "We fixed that problem, on to the next!" and nobody will be brave enough to wade back into that political nightmare in order to tweak/fix a bad bill for fear of losing his/her office. We'll end up with a half-assed bill that doesn't work very well, and yet another government failure for the GOP to point to and say, "See, we told you government can't do anything right! Drown it in the bathtub!"

This article is pure nonsense. Last I checked, Lindsey Graham was not caucusing with the Democrats, yet he is "huddling five times a week" with Joe Biden on climate change. There is no logical reason for Lieberman to continue to participate in Democratic caucuses. None. If Joe Lieberman believes is same-sex benefits, he can pursue them as a party-less independent. Enough already!

would have passed most of this

I doubt that.

If the principal that medical loss ratios will be subject to *regulation survives, then the provision of health care will slowly begin to look like the public utility that it is.

From there, you can at least see the public delivery system, even if its over the next valley. (like a bright shining dream--out of reach for San Fran, but a reality in Sacramento and San Diego.)

*The right National Insurance Commissioner can fuck up the carriers in heartbeat.

Lieberman is a shameless, self-aggrandizing hypocrite. In that he's hardly unique in the halls of Congress. The problem isn't Joe Lieberman, it's a fundamentally undemocratic "tradition" called the filibuster. Get rid of the filibuster (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/geoghegan) and you will improve democracy--and have a much better chance to pass real health care reform. Get rid of Joe, and there's no dearth of Joes to take his place.

Not that I wouldn't take great joy in seeing the Dems send him packing.

Two quotes from the New York Times, Dec. 15th:

"During his 2006 re-election campaign, Mr. Lieberman ranked second in the Senate in insurance industry contributions. Connecticut is a hub of the insurance business, with about 22,0000 jobs specifically in health insurance, according to an industry trade group."

"Campaign finance advocates have attacked Mr. Lieberman as “an insurance industry puppet,” suggesting that he wants to protect private health insurers from competition because he has received more than $1 million in insurance company campaign financing." Not biting the hand that feeds you, huh?