Senator Bob Casey and President Joe Lieberman
Connie Francis, “Who’s Sorry Now?”
I’m not going to into all of the reasons Joe Lieberman has to go, but I will say this: if Lieberman embarrasses or hobbles the Obama administration because the Democrats allowed him to stay in a position of power, they will have no one but themselves to blame. I will call every single person who enabled him and point out that, once again, I was right and they were wrong.
I am getting really tired of being right all the time, but you watch what happens.
Joining the majority of his Democratic colleagues, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey voted Tuesday to allow U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, The Washington Post reports.
Casey had previously hedged when asked how he would vote. In the end, he joined 41 other Senate Democrats in what was a good day for Lieberman
Anonymous Senate Democratic aide, 11/19/08:
Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: “The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question.”
In a surprise setback for Democratic leaders, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, said on Sunday that he would vote against the health care legislation in its current form.
The bill’s supporters had said earlier that they thought they had secured Mr. Lieberman’s agreement to go along with a compromise they worked out to overcome an impasse within the Democratic Party.
But on Sunday, Mr. Lieberman told the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to scrap the idea of expanding Medicare and abandon any new government insurance plan or lose his vote…
A Senate Democratic aide, perplexed by Mr. Lieberman’s stance, said, “It was a total flip-flop, and leaves us in a predicament as to what to do.”
I you so over a year ago. I also told my senator, Bob Casey, so: a number of times, in fact. Clearly he didn’t listen (but then, who EVER listens to a member of the rabble?). It shouldn’t have been a surprise: Casey’s the same guy who didn’t have the foresight to oppose no-strings attached bailouts for Wall Street while Main Street got nothing.
It IS, however, a disappointment because you get the impression Bob means well. The health care bill he works on as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee was far superior to the Finance Committee bill, where Max Baucus bent America over backwards and spread our collective legs to protect the insurance industry. One person familiar with the HELP Committee hearings told me that Casey was the only senator to stand up and point out that the Senate and the House have had government-provided health care for decades, and that maybe it was time for the rest of the country to enjoy that right themselves. I was really proud of Senator Casey for that, even though I knew then (and have so far been proven correct) that no such right will be forthcoming anytime soon.
But here we are, and the Democrats who told us “Lieberman is with us on everything but the war” find they’ve been bitten in the ass in a way even a moron could see coming twenty miles away.
On a related note, I hope the unnamed Senate Democratic aide in the NY Times article, “perplexed by Mr. Lieberman’s stance” who said, “It was a total flip-flop, and leaves us in a predicament as to what to do,” is the same fucking asshole who said “The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes.”
And on that note, I have to call Bob Casey (202-224-6324) and make fun of him. Again.
