Lieberman tells ABC there's no facility more humane than GITMO

Is it my imagination, but does Joe look like he's aged over the last few weeks? And why does the media keep interviewing him and John McCain?

The Lieberman hit parade - a revue

Ladies and Gentlemen, first to appear on our stage tonight is Dancing Joe. Where he comes from, no one knows. He flips, he flops and he rolls on his belly like a reptile. I can guarantee that at the end of his act, you will question his judgement and his sanity. You won't have to guess his motives for playing the clown. They will be perfectly clear or I'll give you your money back.

First, Joe swings to the left, then he marches down the center - rat-ta-rat-rat, rat-ta-rat-rat - and now he's swinging to the right - rat-ta-rat-rat. You'd never know this by looking at him but Joe the Clown used to be a Democrat. I know it's hard to believe but he was indeed. He was even a strong advocate of universal health care. When he campaigned for vice-president back in 2000, he proposed allowing the uninsured to buy into Medicare and Medicaid. And as recently as this past September - that's 2009 - he once again endorsed the plan.

But wait, Joe changed his mind. Quite a shocker, eh? When his plan was added to Senate health care legislation, Little Joe squirmed out the back door and said he wouldn't support it. Swinging more to the right, he said he would invoke some kind of thing called the power of a one-man filibuster. Guess that means he can screw you, American people, by keeping the measure from even getting to the senate floor.

This little man is after blood, or money, or blood money. He seems pretty ticked off at his former buddies in the Democratic party. The ones in his home state of Connecticut knocked him off the primary ticket in 2006 but he was able to wiggle and slither his way back to the Senate as an Independent.

But wait, his anger growing by leaps and bounds, the little clown not only endorses Republican John McCain for president, he rides the circuit for him and puts on an act at the Republican National Convention. But, petty little ego-maniacs are like Pit Bulls. They can't let go. And boy Joe, being beyond vindictive, decides to stick it to the Democrats - where it'll really hurt. He'll do everything in his power to knock the president's health care agenda right off the tracks.

"Screw you President Obama. Screw you Democrats," he yells as he flies through the air. "And while I'm screwing everyone, screw you 47 million Americans. So what you won't have health insurance? Why should I care? I've gotten over a million buckaroos from the insurance industry over the last 21 years, so just eat your cake and shut up."

Bill Press, who provided the facts but not the melodrama, says:

(The Democrats) should have thrown him out of the Senate Democratic Caucus last year. They didn't. So now's the time. Toss Lieberman out of the caucus. Strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. Then tell Lieberman that all legislation bearing his name has been put on permanent hold, and all funds earmarked for Connecticut have been re-assigned to Mississippi. He and his constituents must know there's a price to pay for disloyalty.

Next priority: Kill the filibuster! Or at least modify it so it can't be used as a one-man assassination squad.

Press reviews the changes in the filibuster laws over the years - actually quite interesting - and he ends with this zinger.

Ironically, the last attempt to fix the filibuster was made in 1995 by Sen. Tom Harkin. Harkin's measure would, over time, have gradually reduced the number of votes necessary to end a filibuster. It was a sensible proposal. Here's the kicker: His co-sponsor was Joe Lieberman.

Franken shuts Lieberman's mouth

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) enforces Senate time limit on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

It ain't what you think

Trey Ellis says Joe Lieberman doesn't make him mad. Well, boy Joe has certainly made every liberal and progressive and even some conservatives mad as hell - except for the spineless Democrats and right-wingers in Congress. Trey says he was furious at the "petty, self-serving publicity stunt." But now he's a little calmer and he's not mad at Joe anymore.

Instead he's "mad at the administration for not wielding power."

When Joe was kicked out of the Democratic Party he could have hidden in a corner and sulked. Instead, he understood his strategic position and figured out exactly when and how to strike.

The president's problem is completely the opposite. He was elected with a mandate and momentum to accomplish momentous things, however he and his advisers chose to hang back on health care. What did they expect would happen? Who did they expect would fill the power vacuum? Of course the special interests and the Republicans and moderate Democrats flooded into the void. From the very beginning when the president and Rahm Emanuel said, "Everything was on the table," they invited chaos, disaster and assured their own powerlessness. If you run a campaign promising to change a broken system, how can you entrust the most significant piece of legislation of your tenure to that same system?

The Obama administration needs to course-correct immediately. He needs to make a series of bold, muscular, ruthlessly political moves immediately (reconciliation anyone?) to put the fear of god into all those puny adversaries out there that have been pushing him around with impunity.

Amen. Haven't we been saying that?

Lieberman's one moment of fame may cost him

Just as the cartoon in my last blog implies, Joe Lieberman's career may be headed for the toilet. I can't remember a politician who has infuriated so many people for one self-serving stupid decision. After putting the screws to the American people, he deserves every shove he gets.

The progressive community is moving swiftly against Sen. Joseph Lieberman for killing the public option for insurance coverage and the provision to expand Medicare.

The Huffing Post reports that MoveOn.org has begun a fundraising campaign that "they plan to lauch against the Connecticut independent. The group says it will also use the funds to oppose him in the next election."


Sen. Lieberman has been one of the biggest obstacles to real health care reform with a public option all year. But over the past two weeks, he's taken it to a dangerous new level. First, he demanded that the public option be removed from the bill. Then, last night, he killed an expansion of Medicare--an idea that he himself championed just three months ago and that was added to the bill specifically to satisfy him.

He's shown that he can't be reasoned with. Most of all, Joe Lieberman can't be allowed to stay in the U.S. Senate.

Politico quotes  Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) who says, "No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled."

Connecticut has no recall law for state officials, and the Constitution does not authorize states to recall members of Congress since each house has the authority to police its own members. DeLauro acknowledged that she didn’t know “what the Connecticut process is because I never found myself in this position — but I think it is unconscionable that he would hold up health care.” She said that millions of people die because they lack health insurance.

Hopefully, DeLauro will come up with another plan - like putting her energies behind MoveOn.org. Maybe she's just so ticked off she's thrown off track a bit.

Andrew Sullivan quotes from a reader in The Daily Dish:

Your reader must have smoked something potent this morning if they think there is even a snowball's chance in HELL that Lieberman will be re-elected. I can GUARANTEE that Sarah Palin will have a better shot at being the next Senator from Connecticut than ole Joe. He is universally hated by all in Connecticut - save for a few Republicans. I think after Obama's mistake in campaigning for him in '06, and being summarily back-stabbed, he will make it a personal mission to make sure that POS goes down and goes down HARD.

Sullivan advised that the graph is a few months old. Sure would like to see an update tomorrow.

Lieberman in the toilet

Be careful how you treat people going up the ladder because you never know who you're going to meet on the way down.

My e-mail to Joe Lieberman

This is not the best thing I've ever written, but I'm damn mad. I urge all of you to send him an email and to post the address on your blogs and in your comments. We're too poor to compete with the insurance industry but we got the numbers.  http://lieberman.senate.gov/

My upbringing keeps me from telling you how very despicable I think you are. You care nothing about the people in our country - just your own grandstanding and being a prostitute for the insurance industry. No one likes a turncoat, regardless of which side of the aisle they're on. Hopefully you will be tossed out of that cozy little chair you're in with all that good health coverage. Finally, you're making America the laughing stock of the world.

Lieberman's expert advice to the Democrats

The insurance- industry-supported Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) sounds more and more like his Republican colleagues who also crave attention - John Boehner, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, among others. Boy, howdy, do they like to hear themselves talk. . .and talk. . .and talk.

Today on "Face the Nation," this switch-hitter urged Democrats to drop all provisions from the health care bill if they want "to get reform passed on a bipartisan basis."

One thing Lieberman suggested be taken out is a public option, which is already gone, thanks in large measure to him. Wonder where he's been. He doesn't want to expand Medicare to those as young as 55 and he doesn't think the CLASS Act, which would finance long-term care, is such a hot idea either. Of course, there were no suggestions as to what the Republicans should give up.

So why doesn't this elfin, who leaps from one bush to another, just join the Republican party? The Democrats would be happy to sever his strings and send him on his way.

And Obama was criticized for bowing to the Japanese Emperor?

Joe Lieberman's New Reason for Opposing Public Health Option

Lieberman just keeps adding to his reasons to opposed the public option. Twelve short days ago I posted a list of six, expecting more to come. He hasn't disappointed. THP quotes the Senator:

"It doesn't help one poor person get insurance who doesn't have it now. It doesn't compel one insurance company to provide insurance to somebody who has an illness. And . . . it doesn't do anything to reduce the cost of insurance."

Let's see, uh, well, uh, what did I say the first six times?

Lieberman's many excuses for opposing a public option

Joe Lieberman has offered more excuses for opposing a public option than there are appetizers on a menu. Steve Benen has been tracking these delectible tidbits for six months and is now offering up a half dozen raw oysters swimming in horseradish.

In June, Lieberman said, "I don't favor a public option because I think there's plenty of competition in the private insurance market." That didn't make sense, and it was quickly dropped from his talking points.

In July, Lieberman said he opposes a public option because "the public is going to end up paying for it." No one could figure out exactly what that meant, and the senator moved onto other arguments.

In August, he said we'd have to wait "until the economy's out of recession," which is incoherent, since a public option, even if passed this year, still wouldn't kick in for quite a while.

In September, Lieberman said he opposes a public option because "the public doesn't support it." A wide variety of credible polling proved otherwise.

In October, Lieberman said the public option would mean "trouble ... for the national debt," by creating "a whole new government entitlement program." Soon after, Jon Chait explained that this "literally makes no sense whatsoever."

Well, it's November. And guess what? We're onto the sixth rationale in six months. I actually like the new one.

"This is a radical departure from the way we've responded to the market in America in the past," Lieberman said Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press." "We rely first on competition in our market economy. When the competition fails then what do we do? We regulate or we litigate.... We have never before said, in a given business, we don't trust the companies in it, so we're going to have the government go into that business.."

So, Joe, lie down on the couch over there and tell us what's really on your mind.