Bye bye Joe. Enjoy your last year in office because it will be your last. I hope they strip his committee chair

Of course he will help the Republicans to filibuster. That is what Sen Lieberman lives for - to help Republicans. Remind me again why it was that he was allowed to keep his chairmanship.

Funny. He said the same thing about health care reform in 1993.

My favorite part: "I hope people will respect me for it."

Joe Lieberman is being deliberately provocative. It is time to pose some questions about what really is going on here.

-Is Lieberman's "nyah nyah nyah" intransigence positioning him to request something? And if so, what?

Or, more nefariously,

-Is Lieberman playing Barack Obama's stalking horse as a way to "settle" for a "trigger" rather than push for the Public Option?

Would somebody PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE take away his chairmanship now?

Makes me want to move to CT and vote this clown out of office. What a joke.

Maybe this is a bit picky, but Lieberschmoe didn't say Healthcare reform isn't necessary, he said a PO isn't necessary for reform.

The guy is a turd all by himself. Why does TPM need to dress it up with a misleading headline?

He even said he believes reform is necessary. The quote is right there, "because we need it". Of course his version of reform is handing our souls over to the Insurance Industry, but I thought I was about to read something absolutely stunning in its vileness. Instead I just reread how Joe doesn't like the PO.

Senator Joseph Lieberman
Fax: (202) 224-9750
Re: All About You

Dear Senator Lieberman:

It's all about YOU.

“You know that the people who worked to defeat you in 2006 want this. So you want to block it. There used to be shame, but that's pretty much out the window in this day and age.” – David Waldman, http://www.congressmatters.com

”Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” – Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1954.

Yours truly,

Here are his phone numbers: DC (202) 224-4041
Connecticut (860) 549-8463.

It's because of his wife!

What a scum bag!

Since March 2005, Hadassah Lieberman has worked for Hill & Knowlton, a lobbying firm based in New York City, as a senior counselor in its health and pharmaceuticals practice. She has held senior positions at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, CT, the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), Pfizer, National Research Council, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Lehman Brothers.

Rape Gurney Joe strikes again.

The health reforms won't even be in place for four years, so the time needed to "test" them will be three or four MORE years down the road. Eight more years of medical bankruptcies, people dying, before Lieberman will deign to say, "Gee, maybe we should have had that public option, I was wrong."

Go home, Joe.

When these old geezers start dying off, we'll begin to see true change from the senate and the house. We really need to start exacting term limits on these chairs so that these old cronies will not get too comfortable. All they do is sell us out every time they take money from the lobbyists. Time to make that illegal too.

As Joe mandates that everyone must purchase insurance

and since the industry has all ready produced three studies (bad studies, but nonetheless) to show why they will be raising premiums after HCR is enacted (afterall there is nothing to precent them from doing it)

and since as premiums rise, more and more US treasure will be given to the industry

and since the industry is not even under anti-trust laws

and since many people will not be covered by sudsidies (or recieve insufficient subsidies (and some may be forced to spend more than 20% of their income on insurnace)

and if the Finance Committee's exchange is little more than a yellow pages, according to reports, since Kerry withdrew his ammendment

What is Joe's plan? The American people must suffer and be penalized for four or so years?

LIEberman on October 23, 2006:

"I have offered a comprehensive program. Small business health insurance reform, plus something I call MediKids (a government entitlement) to cover all the children in America on a sliding fee basis up until the age of 25. MediChoice (a public option) to allow anybody in our country to buy into a national insurance pool like the health insurance pool that we federal employees and Members of Congress have."

LIEberman on October 27, 2009:

"I can't see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,"

LIEberman is a slimy liar and why Harry Reid didn't see this coming I'll never know. This is really about Reid's incompetence. We already knew, by experience, what sort backstabber LIEberman was.

One more thing: How many have to die, Joe before you see how wrong you really are??????????

By the way, if you call his office, the voice mail is full.
He's not listening. Never was.

Obama, his conservative entourage and congressional democratic leadership are largely responsible for losing control of the health care debate back in July and August, and dooming Congress to whittle away at a basic, then-consensual idea, the public option. Obama's deferential approach to health care legislation, designed to lower his own political risks, was a virtual guarantee to draw out latent internal democratic divisions, that would be further exploited by the right-wing extremists. Senate Democrats, by the very nature of the anti-democratic representation of that body, are collectively much more conservative than the average democrat constituent. Obama's silence, and divisions in democratic ranks left a large gap for Republicans to dive into and drive an ideological wedge. For for fear of repeating Clinton's mistakes on healthcare, Obama has fallen prey to the other extreme. Unless, Obama finally comes out swinging for health care, it is virtually inevitable that healthcare will be his albatross, not his signature achievement. The multiplication of largely "symbolic" measures designed to quell the party base, such as the federal "hate speech" laws, and a watered-down consumer protection agency, clearly indicate that Obama will not fight for the public option. The democratic base will not forgive him.

Yeah, like we should be taking advice from a guy who wanted to be vice president to John McCain...

John McCain the computer illiterate senator making his next big political move since running for president by offering us the

'Internet Freedom Act' A bill to provide cable companies et

the freedom to charge consumers more money, i.e. make bigger
profits AND 'control access'.

Yes, they would have the right to make Fox download faster and MSNBC download very slowly for example... they would manipulate our choices through cost and speed.

And the argument McCain is using that the current Internet Neutrality being proposed to keep the internet access the same for all is a 'govt takeover of the internet.

I can't place any good advice or decisions from Joe Lieberman. They may exist but are certainly few and far between.

Lieberman has always reminded me of Grima Wormtongue of the Lord of the Rings. He sells his soul to Saruman.

Fortunately Durbin and Reid came right out today saying that reconciliation is still being considered if necessary. Basically letting Lieberman no that he may want something... but he can be overruled or basically ignored and made insignificant.

I agree with others here. This man should be kicked out of the caucus and stripped of his chairmanship.

Agreed.

Better to know you don't have 60 and let the slime caucus with the republicans than let him be the decider on every issue before the senate.

By my count we have 10% conservatives caucusing with the dems so we need a 67 seat majority to have a filibuster proof majority. Can we get 8 more because I am not including Leiberman in that count. I'd rather he were forced to caucus with the republicans.

"I hope people will respect me for it." Joe, no one respects you now. Not even the insurance industry. They pay you, but they don't respect you.

There is no larger a-hole in all the Congress than Lieberman. The man's arrogance and hypocrisy are boundless. His presence on the Dem ticket in 2000 contributed to their loss; the groveling, neo-con love fest he engaged in during the debate with Cheney was absolutely nauseating. That this warmongering corporatist is still so influential now is a testament to how corrupt and apathetic our politics remain. I feel like puking every time I see, hear or read about this self righteous creep.