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.

Breaking News: Olympia Snowe Will Vote Yes

Republican Senator Olympia Snowe has announced that she will vote yes to bring the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill to the floor for a vote. While this is good news in the name of bipartisanship I am a little worried that she might have been bought off. But we will see eventually when we get a look at the final bill.

BTW I expect Snowe may end up changing parties very soon. No way the GOP allows her to stay after this.

An Admission Of Guilt

After Arlen Specter announced that he was switching over to the Democratic Party he said part of the reason why he was doing so was because of the radicalization of the Repubican Party in his home state of Pennsylvania. Basically because so many Republicans left the party last year, what was left of the party was the fringe uber conservative, uber religious right wingnuts. In his own words Specter said he wasn't willing to have that group judge his years of service. Because the republicans in Pennsylvania are now mostly wingnuts all of the polling shows former leader of the Club For Growth, Pat Toomey leading Specter by around 20 points in a Republican primary. And he went through and talked about how the Club For Growth has ruined the Republican party by running far right candidates in primaries and beating sitting GOP members of Congress only to have their far right candidate get destroyed in general elections. He ended up by saying that the Republican party should rise up against the Club For Growth if they ever wanted to change their minority status.

Now soon after Specter's announcement several high profile Republicans came out to slam the move and dispute his characterization of the party. According to them he was just running from the fight and Toomey was a mainstream candidate who could win not only the primary but also the general election. There was all kinds of fantasy based happy talk saying that Specter leaving the party was a great development for the GOP. This was supposedly the first step in the resurgence of the party they said.

Well it seems like since those proclamations some lightbulbs have come on with other people in the Republican party and they are starting to see the truth of Specter's words.

Still stunned by Arlen Specter's party switch, Republican senators are pessimistic about the chances for conservative GOP hopeful Pat Toomey in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

"I don't think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator there," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Asked if the NRSC would back Toomey, Hatch said, "I don't think so" and that the party should look for "someone who can win there."

Now think about what Hatch is saying here. He is saying that a guy who is up 20 pts over Specter in a Republican primary has absolutely no chance in hell of beating Specter in a general election. That is about as close to an admission that the party is now dominated by the fringe of not only the GOP but also the fringe of Pennsylvania in general as you will probably ever see. But that is the state of the Republican party today and as Olympia Snowe pointed out in her op-ed Pennsylvania is just a microcosm of what is going on in that party nationwide. And what makes it worse is that some leaders in the Republican party seem to think this is a good thing.