Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut, emerged Tuesday afternoon from a meeting with his caucus as the center of attention -- again.
On his way in, he told reporters that if a public health insurance option was in the final health care bill, he would join a GOP filibuster to prevent it from getting an up or down vote. HuffPost asked him if there'd been much reaction from his colleagues in the Democratic caucus.
"Not really," he said, "because I think my colleagues know for a long time that I've been opposed to a government-created, government-run insurance company."
Lieberman stressed that he was not opposing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) effort to get a bill on to the floor -- one that includes a public health insurance option. Rather, said Lieberman, he would oppose a final vote on the bill by supporting a GOP filibuster if the public option remained in the bill. The difference is crucial, in that it allows the process to move forward. But it does present backers of a public option with the problem of getting 60 votes for a final vote to cut off a GOP filibuster.
While this is not suprising to hear from Holy Joe, it would be interesting to hear what he has to say when confronted with the fact that the American taxpayer fronts the bulk of the cost for his own healthcare.
After all, Joe is old enough to draw medicare benefits.
How long has he put into the system? Has he stated that he won't accept benefits from a "socialist" system? Has anyone asked him these questions?
From some recent Twitter conversations with conservatives ( that I will be posting later ) I have posed the question of whether these tea-party-set conservatives will not only refuse Medicare and SS benefits, but will attempt to block payments into the system. At this point, I feel that Holy Joe is trying to align himself with a group of people that are currently getting more face-time with the 24-hour news channels ( from a pure ratings perspective ) than what the average American is actually concerned with.
Lieberman is, in more ways than one, a bizarre amalgam of that James Bond villan that doubleo-crosses 007 in the thrid-act and some hackneyed horror movie character that is actually helping the villian. He needs to leave the US Senate, as he is helping no one.
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