Obama Confidant Podesta Says Lieberman Threat Will Renew Push For 51-Vote Health Care Bill

Couldn't the Senate pass the HCR bill without the public option and then come back in January and pass just the Medicare/Medicaid expansion thru reconciliation ??

Lieberman (I-Aetna) campaigned for this very thing in 2000, and supported as recently as September, but now it's a deal breaker. Huh? Look - It's a terrible thing to witness Early Onset Alzheimers on the national stage. Remember the rumors about Reagan that proved to be true? It is clear that the State of Connecticut needs to remove him from office as he is medically unfit to serve.
And yes, I live and vote in Connecticut.

A good start Mr Podesta but a REAL PROGRESSIVE would take it to Lieberman directly!

All these DC/Village Democrats keep insisting on coddling and catering to Joe Lieberman even after Holy Joe makes them look like fools.

It's time for top Democrats (Gore, Clinton, Podesta, etc) to heavily criticize Holy Joe. Joe depends on his entirely fictitious image as a principled man. Take that image away from him, he doesn't deserve it anyway.

I'm fed up with this Villager comity for a man who doesn't care a bit about Americans victimized by our health care system.

Find a way, and expand Medicare to everyone. That way you get a younger, healthier pool that will pay their own premiums, thereby improving the solvency of the program.

Perhaps, the left should have been a little kinder to old Joe.

Quite the contrary. The left should have booted him in January. He would have wound up with the Repubs where he belongs and then at least Reid would know beyond a certainty where Lieberman's vote would be. We might still be in the same intractible place, but at least Lieberman wouldn't still be an ersatz kingmaker.

honestly, they should have done this weeks ago!

Remember, if you say you're ashamed that Bush is from Texas, you're a traitor to America. If you *don't* accuse Obama of trying to destroy the country and take away all our freedoms, you're a traitor to America.

I wonder if this goes back to the quibble Obama had with Liebertraitor on the Senate floor during the general election where they exchanged words.

It's apparent the jealous prick has an axe to grind.

The progressives need a morale booster in terms of kicking Joe's ass around!
I hope the House Progressive Caucus stays it's ground and demands a conference

WH is advising Reid to cut a deal with Lieberman:

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill, according to an official close to the negotiations.

nice try Podesta, thanks for playing

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30572.html

another 123 die!

There must be a penalty. Lieberman needs to lose his committee chair and needs to be kicked out of the caucus. Nelson I'm not as sure about, his offenses aren't quite as bad (he hasn't campaigned for Republicans, for example), but he's close.

Dear United States Senate:

If you've finally figured out that, short of reconciliation, you're going nowhere...

... could you at least say, "Fuck the whole deal!" and ram single payer up their asses?

Thank you.

Love,
Most of America

First let's all notice how the most pious religious guy in the room is the most backstabbing asshole.

Second please not how the Senate is the most un-democratic institution you could dream up. The fact that Wyoming with a population of 600K gets the same votes as California with 38Million people tells you how fucked you are from the start. Then add in the insanity of a filibuster needing 60 of these votes to wipe your ass on any matter of any kind and you have NOTHING THAT RESEMBLES A DEMOCRACY AT ALL.

Third and last, this may work out in the end if a reconciliation vote is actually the way we need to pass what a large majority of Americans want, then so be it. We will get a MUCH better bill that actually WORKS with a simple 51 majority of progressive and moderate Dems.

Fuck the insurance corporate whores! Insurance companies DO NOT PROVIDE ONE DOLLAR WORTH OF HEALTHCARE SERVICE. Doctors and hospitals do the work and the insurance scam skims 30% off the top of every dollar to buy themselves the luxuries of life at the cost of others lives.

Medicare for ALL!

Lieberman is really a Republican. His actions are designed to kill HCR and help the GOP in 2010. He's probably snickering about this with his friend John McCain.

* Reconciliaton (at least part of the bill -- the main part without PO probably has 60 votes.)
* Back to Snowe
* Nuclear Option

""I suspect musty folders on reconciliation got dusted off this morning..." FINALLY!!

From rawstory
White House pressuring Reid to negotiate with Lieberman?

By David Edwards and Stephen Webster
Sunday, December 13th, 2009 -- 2:52 pm
Share on Facebook Stumble This!

liebermanfoldshands White House pressuring Reid to negotiate with Lieberman?UPDATE

The White House is denying a news report that it is pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to negotiate a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman on health care reform.

“The report is inaccurate," White House communication adviser Dan Pfieiffer told Greg Sargent at the Plum Line. "The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible."

Citing "an official close to the negotiations," Politico reported Monday:

The White House is encouraging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which would mean eliminating the proposed Medicare expansion in the health reform bill.
Story continues below...

But Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill...

"There is a weariness and a lot of frustration that one person is holding up the will of 59 others," the official said. “There is still too much anger and confusion at one particular senator’s reversal.”

The proposed health care compromise would see Medicare expanded so that people aged 55 and over can buy in to the government-run plan, which currently covers senior citizens aged 65 or older. Supporters of health care reform have criticized Lieberman's stance, pointing out that the independent Connecticut senator who caucuses with the Democrats had been in favor of such an idea as recently as three months ago.

Politico reports that the Democrats and the Obama administration now have "limited options" in terms of getting a health care bill passed: They can negotiate a deal with Lieberman, which would strip out most of the "progressive" reforms in the bill; they could try to get Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) on board, though Politico describes this as doubtful; or they could pass a reform bill through reconciliation with the already-passed House bill, a move that would allow the Democrats to move forward with only 51 votes, but which is seen as politically risky.

Update at bottom: 81 percent of Democrats want Lieberman punished for healthcare filibuster: poll

Sen. Joe Lieberman isn't backing down from his demand that health care reform not include a public option. But as he said on Sunday, there are now more items that must be removed before he will give his vote.

"I want to tell you, we could pass a health care reform bill this week with more than 60 votes and it would be bipartisan if we just took a few things out of the bill as it is today," Lieberman told CBS' Bob Schieffer during a Sunday broadcast.

"Give me the list of things that have to be taken out to pass," Schieffer prompted.

"From my point of view, no public option," the senator replied. "No Medicare buy-in. Class act, which will add to our debt in the future, ah, it doesn't take much more than that. You'd have a great bill left."

According to a poll conducted by Progressive Campaign Change Committee and Democracy for America released Monday, Democrats want Lieberman punished if he joins a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform.

Eighty-one percent of Democrats said they would like to see the senator's chairmanship -- which he was allowed to keep despite campaigning for Sen. John McCain in 2008 -- taken away should he sustain a filibuster. Only 10 percent of Democrats said there should be no punishment. Even fewer (nine percent) said they had yet to make up their minds, underscoring just how divisive Lieberman is within the party.

An additional 43 percent of independents agreed that Lieberman should lose his post, with 30 percent saying no. Only ten percent of Republicans, meanwhile, thought Lieberman should be punished under such a scenario -- while 66 percent said he should not.

All told, 47 percent of the public said Senate leaders should remove Lieberman from his chairmanship if he joins the Republican filibuster; 32 percent said they should allow him to keep the post; 21 percent said they weren't sure.

Answer: Joe Lieberman
Question: How high can you stack shit?