The Kiss Of Death

So today Anthony Weiner basically said Harold Ford Jr would be another Joe Lieberman.....

If Gilibrand's people are smart they will start repeating this theme 1000 different ways.

Update: Come to think of it, maybe this should be the platform of many of the Dems in the mid terms. Instead of running against Bush or running against the GOP, maybe running against Lieberman is the answer...

Lieberman Sock Puppets

Thanks O Dub

John McCain, Hypocrite

But then what else do you expect from a guy who can't even remember how many cars and homes he owns?

Mad At The Wrong People/Person

I have been as mad as Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson and the rest of the ConservaDems in the Senate as anybody else. And I have been as disappointed in the Obama administration and their glaring weakness on pushing health care reform as anybody else. But today was actually an "aha" moment for me. As many problems as I have with those people, I am not convinced that I should have reserved some of my ire for some other folks and perhaps THEY are the ones who should have been pressured all along.

Who am I talking about you ask?

The so called progressives in the Senate.

Here is the thing, Joe Lieberman et al forced Harry Reid's and President Obama's hand at least publicly by announcing they wouldn't support cloture on this health care reform bill at various times. Now this may have been what President Obama had wanted all along as some folks are saying, hell I don't know. But I do know this. If Jay Rockerfeller or Chuck Schumer or Sheldon Whitehouse or Sherrod Brown had the guts/balls/courage, take your pick, to make the same stance and draw a line in the sand over the public option and or the Medicare buy in then we wouldn't be in this mess.

It all came clear when I saw Rockerfeller on MSNBC today and Robert Gibbs feverishly going after Howard Dean for saying kill the bill. They don't have ONE FUCKING WORD to say about Joe Lieberman, but Governor Dean, hell he's the enemy. For all of the lip service they paid to the public option and the Medicare buy in, not one, not one single solitary one of them EVER even alluded to perhaps not voting for cloture if they weren't in.

Now ask yourself a question, why is that?

Its because they know that they don't have to take such a courageous stance and all they have to do is offer a few amendments and then come out of a meeting with that "we did all we could" bullshit and folks will buy it. I mean who could challenge Rockerfeller or Whitehouse or Brown on their progressive cred?

I could, that's who.

This has been a total load of bullshit from the start. And it should have dawned on me when the only member of the WHOLE Senate Democratic Caucus who pledged not to vote for the bill without a public option was, of all people, Roland Burris. That ladies and gentlemen tells you how this game was rigged from the start. It shows you that even though they exhorted us to call our Senators and lied over and over again about the likelihood of getting a public option in, that all along they were planning on falling back when push came to shove.

And then we wonder why Republicans basically call them pussies to their face and they do nothing more than take it.

Hey, Joe Lieberman is an asshole, but at least he is a strong one. With everybody fucking with him and even his wife he still gave everybody the middle finger and said he wouldn't vote for the bill. Where is OUR asshole? A progressive asshole who is just as stubborn?

So here we are, now the White House and so called progressives in the Senate are attacking Governor Dean for speaking truth to power. They are flogging that 30 million people covered number, even though

A. The CBO hasn't scored the new bill. and

B. The CBO's earlier projection was based on people being mandated to buy coverage, not on their ability to pay for such coverage.

Basically the so called progressives are now coming out telling us all tho shut the fuck up. Well sorry, I ain't built that way.

So here is what happens now. For me waiting for midterm elections is too long. Here is what I plan on doing poste haste. The next emails I get from OFA and barackobama.com will be replied to with a "Remove me" email explaining that I will no longer be helping them in any way shape or form and health care reform is the reason. I will also refuse any email from the so called progressives in the Senate asking me to send money, phone bank, or organize and I will also let them know why. Basically I am cutting off anything associated with a so called progressive in the Senate and the White House until further notice.

I am also going to make sure to blog about the actual CBO score that should be out any day now and note how the numbers are invariably worse than the version with the public option in it. Because I can make a prediction right here and now, the Senate Dems are in such a rush to pass this shitty bill now that they won't even want to make any announcements about the new score because they KNOW it will be worse.

Now I am not jumping all the way off the ship, but I can tell you this much. Aside from taking potshots at Republicans which is basically my pleasure, I am not busting my ass for these assholes anymore. They feel like they don't need progressives. They think they can win elections with out us. They think they can sell us out at every turn and we will still stick by them.

They are wrong.

How Embarrassing

I like Senators Klobuchar and Shaheen and its a damn shame that the Democratic Senate leadership trotted them out to cover Joe Lieberman's ass like this. I hope they realize that nobody is buying this bullshit, especially not any liberals or progressives. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do but talk about drawing the short straw. SMDH

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All Hail President Lieberman

I gotta say, this is some straight up coward shit right here. And I MEAN that!

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Taken To The Woodshed

Somehow I doubt Charles Lane will be trying to attack Ezra Klein again any time soon.

Punks jump up to get beatdown!

A Health Care Compromise That I Might Support

Josh over at TPM seems to think that at this point since Joe LIEberman is showing his ass that the best thing to do would be for the Democratic Leadership in the Senate to court Olympia Snowe again and instead try to get her vote. I don't necessarily disagree. I think its apparent at this point that Lieberman is just bullshitting and that he has no plans whatsoever to vote for cloture on a health care reform bill no matter what. Of course he said at the beginning of the process that he didn't think we needed health care reform so this really shouldn't surprise anyone.

But here is MY thing. If the Democrats want to put a trigger on a public option then I won't like it but under one circumstance I will hold my nose and support it. The public humiliation Joe Lieberman by stripping him of all his chairmanships and seniority at a very public press conference.

Not only would this be good policy, but good politics for the Democrats. Nobody can accuse them of banishing him because of purity tests. Remember he isn't actually a Democrat anyway AND he campaigned heavily for the Republican candidate for President last year. I was outraged from the get go that he was allowed to keep his chairmanships after all that and had no problem saying so. But at the time some good folks on the left kept telling me that it was all some great chess move by President Obama that would pay off in the long run.

Yeah, score one for me.

And I can promise you this much, liberals and progressives will not support a health care reform bill without a robust public option BUT kicking Lieberman's ass to the curb is very likely to fire up the base. Its time to drop the dead weight that is fucking up all our legislation. And overtly it can be a warning to the other jack asses in the me first caucus like Ben Nelson. Being a Democrat doesn't mean somebody has to agree with every single piece of legislation, but they for damn sure better not be standing in the way of up and down votes on legislation that has been on the Democratic platform for decades.

So Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel, and the rest of you jackasses getting ready to sell the farm on health care reform for one Republican vote, just know that axing LIEberman, publicly and in a humiliating fashion just might soften the blow. Speaking strictly for myself of course.

Just Because

I have no illusions that this ad will make Joe Lieberman even think for one second about supporting the public option, but at this point I will post anything that targets him just for the hell of it.

But Today I Am Still Just A Bill...

Funny but you won't hear the word filibuster anywhere in this clip...

Joe Lieberman Is A Lying Sack Of Shit

I know I am not breaking any news here with the headline. But Ezra Klein fisks his latest wankery, the claim that President Obama never talked about a public option in health care before the election.

In the immortal words of Dana Milbank, "What a Dick"

An Unlikely Hero

I haven't had a lot of good to say about Roland Burris since he accepted his Senate seat from the tainted Rod Blagojevich, but I always give credit where credit is due. And as far as I can tell out of all of the 60 Senators that caucus with the Democrats, Roland Burris is the ONLY one who has come out and said unequivically that he will not vote for a health care reform bill that does not include a public option. Now to be sure he hasn't gone as far as his ideological opposite in Joe LIEberman in saying he would filibuster the bill if it doesn't include a public option. But the truth is if there were 9 other actual Democrats who claim they are for a public option would come out and say the same thing that Burris has said then any talk of trying to get cloture would be moot. Instead of trying to pandering to the LIEberman party of one, Harry Reid would HAVE to find a way to pass the bill without taking out the public option. I don't give a damn what Burris has done up to this point, on this issue he is doing the right thing.

If only we could get a few more "reputable" Democrats who are for health care reform to do the same damn thing...

Running Away From Joe Lieberman

Evidently Evan Bayh must noticed everyone on the left starting to dig into his and his wife's financial ties to the health insurance industry because he suddenly is getting himself in check on voting for cloture.

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Mr. Anti Filibuster

What a DICK!

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Like I Said, I Have Nothing More To Say About LIEberman...

...but if I did it would go a lot like this Paul Begala piece in The Daily Beast.

Bravo Mr. Begala, Bravo!

The REAL Question We Should Be Asking

I know that since Joe LIEberman pissed in the punch yesterday many of us on the left have been apoplectic over it. By in large the questions have been asked over and over again to the effect of "What will they do about Joe LIEberman?". Meaning what will Harry Reid do? Will he threaten LIEberman with his seniority and committee chairmanships? What will President Obama do? Threaten to campaign against him and run him out of the party and politics? Cut off all of his earmarks?

That is all find and good, and if you have read this blog for any period of time you know that I have no problem and in fact encourage Democratic leadership to cut LIEberman off at the knees. And that was before he was threatening a filibuster. But here is the thing, there is another way of looking at this.

It is time to ask what are our progressive leaders in the Senate willing to do to counter LIEberman? He has pledged to join a filibuster if there is a public option in the bill. Is there a Democrat in the Senate who has the courage to now come out and say that THEY will filibuster any bill that does not have one?

This is a very important question and it goes to the heart of whether Joe LIEberman will be allowed to ruin this health care reform bill. You see if our side is not willing to show that we will be just as strong in our advocacy for the public option as he will be in his opposition to the public option just who do you think President Obama and Harry Reid are going to defer to? They will defer to the person or persons that they feel most threaten the passage of the bill. And until we are sitting on that equal platform we will not be taken seriously.

So if you are worried about Joe LIEberman and his opposition to the public option our path should be clear. We need to pressure all of the proponents of a public option in the Senate to come out with their own statements about cloture. Its really that simple. It is time to meet fire with fire and prove that progressives in the Senate are not just all talk. Getting Harry Reid to put a public option in the bill was basically just the first step. Now we have to put pressure on people like Chuck Schumer and Jay Rockerfeller to draw a line in the sand to show that we won't allow it to be removed.

It is what it is.

Nothing Else To Say...

If you are waiting for me to say something about Joe LIEberman's latest fuckery you are wasting your time. I have said all I have to say about that asshole. Its time for a Democrat in the Senate to actually DO something about him. Period.

I Hate To Say I Told You So

Show of hands, how many folks still think it was some kind of a stroke of brilliance to let Joe LIEberman extort his gavel from the Democratic caucus leaders?

Somebody? Anybody?

Buehler?

The Proper Way Of Whacking A Concern Troll

Spencer Ackerman does the honors on Joe LIEberman's concern trolling over the ballistic missle defense shield.

Truly a thing of beauty!

Ezra Klein PWNS Joe Lieberman

Every Democratic strategist going on cable news this week should read this Ezra Klein post about Joe Lieberman's lame recession excuse against doing health care reform now because I can promise you that they will be hit over the head with what that asshole said yesterday on CNN.

Second, health-care reform is scheduled to begin in 2013, by which time we will almost certainly be out of recession, and if we're not, we have bigger problems. Lieberman might be uncommonly pessimistic about our prospects for growth, but that would imply support for health-care reform, as it will pump a trillion dollars into the economy and thus stimulate demand.

Third, the costs of reform largely manifest in the later years of the decade, namely 2015-2019, by which point we may or may not be in recession, but if we are, it will probably be a different recession than the one we're in now.

There is, in other words, no connection between whether GDP growth is slightly negative in the third quarter of 2009 and whether we should spend money between 2013 and 2019 building a universal health-care system. When people say we shouldn't do health-care reform because of the recession, they're saying something about their preferred approach to health-care reform, not to recessions.

Oh yeah, and by the way, FUCK JOE LIEBERMAN!

That is all.