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Lieberman: "I Haven't Decided" Whether To Support GOP Filibuster On Health Care

by: tparty

Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 10:13:55 AM EDT

Mike Stark caught up with Sen. Lieberman in Washington D.C. yesterday and asked him if he would consider joining a Republican-led filibuster to deny an up-or-down vote on the public option and health care reform:

But now you're standing against a public option. Will you join with the Republicans in filibustering if it comes to that?
"I'm not sure. But I haven't changed. People around me have changed. I haven't decided that yet."

Depending on the calcium levels in the spines of Senate Democrats on whatever particular day the decision is made, this could be a very costly position for Sen. Lieberman to take.

Rachel Maddow reported on MSNBC last night that there may be movement in the Senate to strip gavels from any Democratic committee chairs who would support a Republican filibuster and deny an up-or-down vote on health care:

We can report exclusively tonight, that two major power brokers on the left have told MSNBC that they are encouraging a Senate strategy now, in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform...
Regardless of how individual senators would vote ultimately on the bill, committee chairmen or subcommittee chairmen who allowed Republicans to force a 60-vote requirement for passing health care... under this type of strategy would be in danger of losing their chairmanships.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has also gone up with a petition demanding that Senate Democratic committee chairs who do not vote to allow an up-or-down vote on health care be removed from their positions. It has ~~6,700~~ 14,900 signatures so far, and they are now aiming for ~~10,000~~ 20,000 before delivering to Harry Reid.

As Jon K. notes below, if there's one thing Sen. Lieberman values in his professional life, it is his precious chairman's gavel - to be used, of course, only in political attacks against Democratic administrations, and never to investigate silly inconsequential events like Iraq or Katrina.

If Sen. Lieberman supports a Republican filibuster, as he seems fully prepared to do, that gavel may now now imperiled.

tparty :: Lieberman: "I Haven't Decided" Whether To Support GOP Filibuster On Health Care

Tags: Joe Lieberman, (All Tags)

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Lieberman: "I Haven't Decided" Whether To Support GOP Filibuster On Health Care | 7 comments

I urge everyone to sign the Progressive Change Campaign petition (4.00 / 2)

Let's the Dem leadership they need to lead and that we support that strategy.

by: saramerica @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 09:22:34 AM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Done (0.00 / 0)

by: Larkspur @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 11:21:50 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

He's Right - That He Hasn't Changed (4.00 / 2)

As evidenced by this from a 1994 NY Times article:

Mr. Lieberman has also attracted support as a result of his strong stance against the President's health-care plan. According to the National Library on Money and Politics, a nonpartisan research group in Washington advocating campaign financing reform, he garnered $128,400 from health and insurance political action committees in 1993, the eighth highest total in the Senate.

by: Jon Kantrowitz @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 09:29:52 AM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Does President Obama have the guts? (0.00 / 0)

Lieberman was his mentor, and Senator Obama came to Connecticut to support Lieberman during his 2006 campaign. If Lieberman supports the Republican filibuster, Obama will have to disown him. If he doesn't, then it will tell us lots about President Obama's core beliefs, or lack of them.

It's not enough for him to come to Connecticut to support Senator Dodd; he needs to take hard stands against Republican lackies like Lieberman as well.

(PS I don't know if calcium is the correct substance to add to the spine. My grandmother was bedridden with calcification of the spine. But I'm no doctor. Perhaps just guts would do.)

by: thomashooker @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 09:34:38 AM CDT

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Harry Reid's call (0.00 / 0)

Not Obama's. Though "spine" is not something I associate with Reid at the best of times.

by: Scarce @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 09:52:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Good point about calcium (0.00 / 0)

Sometimes what's really lacking is located in neither the skeletal nor the digestive systems, but from the neck up.

by: tparty @ Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 10:27:13 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

A better pledge (0.00 / 0)

Let Lieberman vote however he wants. Just get him to pledge that he'll vote immediately when the final bill goes to the floor out of conference. He just wants to be a giant diva about the whole thing. I'm all for the man voting his conscience (yeah right) but let him do it when the bill goes to the floor, not wait like a weasel and vote last.

Then when he votes with his GOP friends Harry Reid can give Olympia Snowe and/or George Voinovich the moon and the stars and a foot massage and the chance to be Everett Dirksen and vote to deliver healthcare.

Lieberman's time is done, if only the rest of the Senate Dems would learn his tricks. He's a toothless stooge as Homeland Security Chair but that's a bed that both Harry Reid and Barack Obama made together. As a caucus member who betrays a half century quest for healthcare, Lieberman would be making his own bed.

Can you put the Hamlet act to rest when the bill hits the floor and vote Sen. Lieberman or are you such an attention whore that you need still more time to figure out your vote?

by: joejoejoe @ Mon Oct 12, 2009 at 16:18:18 PM CDT

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Lieberman: "I Haven't Decided" Whether To Support GOP Filibuster On Health Care | 7 comments

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