Joe Lieberman is Laughing at the Democrats
joe Lieberman, doing exactly what i said he would do a year ago:
Mr. Lieberman threatened on national television to join the Republicans in blocking the health care bill, President Obama’s chief domestic initiative. Within hours, he was in a meeting at the Capitol with top White House officials.
And on Monday night, Democratic senators emerged from a tense 90-minute closed-door session and suggested that they were on the verge of bowing to Mr. Lieberman’s main demands: that they scrap a plan to let people buy into Medicare beginning at age 55, and scotch even a fallback version of a new government-run health insurance plan, or public option.
Mr. Lieberman said he believed that the Medicare expansion was off the table, though he did not get any guarantee. “Not an explicit assurance, no,” he said. “But put me down tonight as encouraged at the direction in which these discussions are going.”
Mr. Lieberman could not be happier. He is right where he wants to be — at the center of the political aisle, the center of the Democrats’ efforts to win 60 votes for their sweeping health care legislation. For the moment, he is at the center of everything — and he loves it.
“My wife said to me, ‘Why do you always end up being the point person here?’ ” he said, flashing a broad grin in an interview on Monday.
Just hours after his televised threat to kill the bill, Mr. Lieberman said, he left a meeting with Senate leaders and top White House officials in the office of the majority leader, Harry Reid, more certain than ever that he held all the cards.
Now, this is hardly surprising to anyone but people who work in the Senate. Mr. Lieberman should have been dealt with harshly and severely back in 2008, stripped of his charimanships and relegated to the back bench. But that would require foresight and strategy, and we all know that, in the Senate at least, comity is more important than anything, including taking care of constituents. And true to form, the Democrats STILL don’t get it:
Many Democrats say they have given up trying to divine the motivations of Mr. Lieberman.
Really? Are you that thunderously motherfucking stupid? Well, let me spell it out for you: Joe Lieberman wants R-E-V-E-N-G-E on the L-E-F-T. Why do you think he flip-flopped on Medicare expansion, something he supported 3 months ago? The minute progressives said they supported it, he flipped. If progressives said they like ice cream and cake, Mr. Lieberman would probably propose legislation banning the sale and manufacture of Haagen Daas, and close Carvels from coast to coast.
But here we are, with the Democrats caving in to the demands of a pathetic and angry little man. Why? Well, despite denials from the White House, no fewer than three reporters say that “Rahm Emanuel visited Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his Capitol office on Sunday evening and personally urged him to cut a deal with recalcitrant Sen. Joe Lieberman.”
So there ya go. And in a related note, while I am reluctant to weigh in on the dispute between Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher and Booman Tribune’s Martin Longman, both of who I read daily, I believe the FDL team has the more accurate reading. Where Booman writes,
I am not a fan of Rahm Emanuel’s politics, but I see him as doing his best to pass the strongest possible health care reform in the service of the president. Hamsher sees him as secretly undermining strong reform. Her evidence is weak, unsubstantiated, and just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
…FDL blogger Empty Wheel has substantiated claims by three reporters that Mr. Emmanuel, the White House Chief of Staff, personally pressured Reid to deal with Lieberman. And thast’s backed up further by Talking Points Memo, one of the most wired in blogs I read:
Emanuel didn’t just leave it to Reid to find a solution. Emanuel specifically suggested Reid give Lieberman the concessions he seeks on issues like the Medicare buy-in and triggers.
“It was all about ‘do what you’ve got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you’ve got to drop to get it done,” the aide said. All of Emanuel’s prescriptions, the source said, were aimed at appeasing Lieberman–not twisting his arm.
The Democrats continue to empower the son of a bitch, and as long as reconciliation is off the table, Lieberman will continue to laugh at the Democrats.
The Democrats, as usual, have only themselves to blame.
