Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Joe Lieberman Is Not Special







First off, it must be brought up that no matter what the political nose count is in the Senate, Joe Lieberman unfailingly, through some ongoing cosmic practical joke, finds himself in a position of power. In the 110th Congress, when the Democrats had only 50 seats, Lieberman as an "Independent Democrat", found himself holding the golden ticket with "#51" embossed on it. The myth was that if the Democrats wanted anything passed, they'd need Lieberman on board to vote against the monolithic Republicans with whom he's long since thrown in his lot.

Then when the Democrats expanded their majority (especially after Senator Franken was finally certified as the winner in Minnesota), the next myth was that Joe Lieberman would be the crucial 60th swing vote that would prevent Republican filibusters. Instead, Lieberman threatened to filibuster the health care bill, a health care bill containing provisions for which Lieberman, until just last September, was in favor.

Let's get one thing straight: Lieberman is no more a Democrat than was Ronald Reagan or Joe McCarthy, two cretinous turncoats who turned to the dark side because the booze was freer and the power more intoxicating. Lieberman, against all reason, has still been allowed to caucus with the Democrats and to hold on to his chairmanship. Lieberman's about-face regarding a public option, at best an inbred country cousin for the single payer reform that many leading economists say we need, a single payer system for which, according to some polls 70% of Americans are in favor, is one of the most stunning flip flops in recent years and this just 13 months after a general election.

Joe Lieberman is a self-absorbed gargoyle with no loyalty to either party. He stabs the Democratic Party in the back whether it be over health care, the war in Iraq or the reconstruction of the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. After promising during his latest Senate race to support a Democrat for President, once he was reinstalled into the Senate he wasted little time in supporting John McCain. As if rubbing Kosher salt into the open wounds of the Democrats with whom he purports to run, he's recently publicly said he'll back more Republicans in the 2010 midterms. Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo had Lieberman pegged:
The key issue senate Democrats now have in dealing with Joe Lieberman isn't his position on the Medicare Buy-In. They need to confront the problem that Lieberman isn't negotiating in good faith. No surprise that Republicans are giddy with what a problem he's creating for Harry Reid & Co. But in my conversations with them, it's as clear to them as it is to anyone else that he's now basically mocking his Democratic colleagues by moving the goal posts every time a new agreement is struck.

This puts the Democrats in an extremely difficult, politically untenable position. Yes, they need 60 votes. But they're not going to be able to hang on to Lieberman's vote long enough to get the bill passed. That now seems unquestionably clear. People who say that the Dems should just move to reconciliation don't necessarily realize the difficulties involved - either procedurally or politically, in terms of losing even more Democratic votes. Personally, I'd like to see them try it. But I don't know if it's possible.

Until a couple days ago I was close to certain a health care bill would pass. I still feel relatively confident one will simply because the Dems just don't have any choice but to pass one. Once it is passed, if it is, it's definitely time for the Democratic caucus to strip Lieberman of all the benefits he receives as a member of the Democratic caucus. But that doesn't accomplish anything at the moment. The only path I can see for the Dems is that they need to try to put 60 votes together with Sen. Snowe. Yes, that sounds crazy to me too. But I think she actually has a set of policy priorities that could be met. I don't think that's true with Lieberman. So further negotiating just means more game-playing.

Yes, you heard that right. The Senate Democrats may have to woo Sen. Olympia Snowe for her crucial 60th vote because Lieberman has been so waspish lately against so-called liberals and their so-called liberal agenda. The Democrats should have stripped Lieberman of his chairmanship, kicked him out of the party of which he's only nominally and technically a member. However...

While the uproar over Lieberman is certainly justified, we need to stop pretending that Lieberman's betrayal of the public option is an isolated fissure in a unified Democratic leadership that simply doesn't exist and never, ever has existed. How soon we forget that other so-called "liberals", the kind Lieberman loves to needle with the industry of a CIA interrogator at Abu Ghraib, have also abandoned the public option after supporting it.

How soon we've forgotten that Nancy Pelosi mysteriously flip-flopped on the issue just days before the health care racket threw a huge fundraiser for her. How soon we've forgotten that after making it one of his signature health care issues both on the campaign trail and right after getting in the White House, President Barack Obama then was quite willing to take a public option off the table. Democrats en masse were all too willing to let small state Republicans slip language into a draft of the health care bill that would let states opt out of a public option.

Joe Lieberman is a back-stabbing cretin to be sure. But he is far from special except in this respect:

Even though the man is a neocon in donkey's clothes and embraces one ruinous neocon policy after another, at the end of the day Joe Lieberman still has more backbone than virtually any Democrat in the Senate and even the House. Lieberman isn't afraid to stand on his rickety hind legs, whip it out and spooge all over the face of the Democratic Party. He isn't afraid of what those of his "party" will think or of the fallout.

Joe Lieberman's principles, if one can call them that, frankly suck. But once Lieberman's flipped, he stays flipped regardless of public opinion or the public option. Which is something that can't be said for the President, the Speaker or the Senate Majority Leader.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

KindleindaWind, my writing blog.

All Time Classics

  • Our Worse Half: The 25 Most Embarrassing States.
  • The Missing Security Tapes From the World Trade Center.
  • It's a Blunderful Life.
  • The Civil War II
  • Sweet Jesus, I Hate America
  • Top Ten Conservative Books
  • I Am Mr. Ed
  • Glenn Beck: Racist, Hate Monger, Comedian
  • The Ten Worst Music Videos of all Time
  • Assclowns of the Week

  • Links to the first 33 Assclowns of the Week.
  • Links to Assclowns of the Week 38-63.
  • #106: The Turkey Has Landed edition
  • #105: Blame it on Paris or Putin edition
  • #104: Make Racism Great Again Also Labor Day edition
  • #103: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Toilet edition
  • #102: Orange is the New Fat edition
  • #101: Electoral College Dropouts edition
  • #100: Centennial of Silliness edition
  • #99: Dr. Strangehate edition
  • #98: Get Bentghazi edition
  • #97: SNAPping Your Fingers at the Poor edition
  • #96: Treat or Treat, Kiss My Ass edition
  • #95: Monumental Stupidity double-sized edition
  • #94: House of 'Tards edition
  • #93: You Da Bomb! edition.
  • #92: Akin to a Fool edition.
  • #91: Aurora Moronealis edition.
  • #90: Keep Your Gubmint Hands Off My High Pre'mums and Deductibles! edition.
  • #89: Occupy the Catbird Seat/Thanksgiving edition.
  • #88: Heil Hitler edition.
  • #87: Let Sleeping Elephants Lie edition.
  • #86: the Maniacs edition.
  • #85: The Top 50 Assclowns of 2010 edition.
  • #(19)84: Midterm Madness edition.
  • #83: Spill, Baby, Spill! edition.
  • #82: Leave Corporations Alone, They’re People! edition.
  • #81: Hatin' on Haiti edition.
  • #80: Don't Get Your Panties in a Twist edition.
  • #79: Top 50 Assclowns of 2009 edition.
  • #78: Nattering Nabobs of Negativism edition.
  • #77: ...And Justice For Once edition.
  • #76: Reading Tea Leaves/Labor Day edition.
  • #75: Diamond Jubilee/Inaugural Edition
  • #74: Dropping the Crystal Ball Edition
  • #73: The Twelve Assclowns of Christmas Edition
  • #72: Trick or Treat Election Day Edition
  • #71: Grand Theft Autocrats Edition
  • #70: Soulless Corporations and the Politicians Who Love Them Edition
  • Empire Of The Senseless.
  • Christwire.org: Conservative Values for an Unsaved World.
  • Esquire's Charles Pierce.
  • Brilliant @ Breakfast.
  • The Burning Platform.
  • The Rant.
  • Mock, Paper, Scissors.
  • James Petras.
  • Towle Road.
  • Avedon's Sideshow (the new site).
  • At Largely, Larisa Alexandrovna's place.
  • The Daily Howler.
  • The DCist.
  • Greg Palast.
  • Jon Swift. RIP, Al.
  • God is For Suckers.
  • The Rude Pundit.
  • Driftglass.
  • Newshounds.
  • William Grigg, a great find.
  • Brad Blog.
  • Down With Tyranny!, Howie Klein's blog.
  • Wayne's World. Party time! Excellent!
  • Busted Knuckles, aka Ornery Bastard.
  • Mills River Progressive.
  • Right Wing Watch.
  • Earthbond Misfit.
  • Anosognosia.
  • Echidne of the Snakes.
  • They Gave Us a Republic.
  • The Gawker.
  • Outtake Online, Emmy-winner Charlotte Robinson's site.
  • Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
  • No More Mr. Nice Blog.
  • Head On Radio Network, Bob Kincaid.
  • Spocko's Brain.
  • Pandagon.
  • Slackivist.
  • WTF Is It Now?
  • No Blood For Hubris.
  • Lydia Cornell, a very smart and accomplished lady.
  • Roger Ailes (the good one.)
  • BlondeSense.
  • The Smirking Chimp.
  • Hammer of the Blogs.
  • Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
  • Argville.
  • Existentialist Cowboy.
  • The Progressive.
  • The Nation.
  • Mother Jones.
  • Vanity Fair.
  • Salon.com.
  • Citizens For Legitimate Government.
  • News Finder.
  • Indy Media Center.
  • Lexis News.
  • Military Religious Freedom.
  • McClatchy Newspapers.
  • The New Yorker.
  • Bloggingheads TV, political vlogging.
  • Find Articles.com, the next-best thing to Nexis.
  • Altweeklies, for the news you won't get just anywhere.
  • The Smirking Chimp
  • Don Emmerich's Peace Blog
  • Wikileaks.
  • The Peoples' Voice.
  • Dictionary.com.
  • CIA World Fact Book.
  • IP address locator.
  • Tom Tomorrow's hilarious strip.
  • Babelfish, an instant, online translator. I love to translate Ann Coulter's site into German.
  • Newsmeat: Find out who's donating to whom.
  • Wikipedia.
  • Uncyclopedia.
  • anysoldier.com
  • Icasualties
  • Free Press
  • YouTube
  • The Bone Bridge.
  • Powered by Blogger