Give 'Em Hell Harry, Starting with Lieberman

[Joanne98]

For OpEdNews: Rob Kall - Writer

Time to make the lives of opponents of health care reform living hell. Do whatever is legal to make them and their families and all around them annoyed, irritated, hassled, and worrying about what will come next.

It's time to stop giving slack to recalcitrant Democratic senators. It's time to play the hardest hardball with them from in and out.

From in the senate, Harry Reid needs to get as tough as it is possible to get. Joe the MFing .... well, add your own expletives... Lieberman is making history, duplicitously stabbing his party in the bag, killing cloture. It is time for Harry Reid to make history not just for Lieberman, but for any Dem who stabs the party in the back by enabling a filibuster that prevents an up or down vote.


What can Reid do? He can take away Lieberman's appointment as head of the Homeland Security committee. He can move his office to the basement. He can scrutinize his expense bills. He can have him investigated on ethics complaints. He can cut his perks to the bone and reject any requests for expenses or extras, like junkets to Israel. He can make sure that any pork Lieberman tries to grab is trimmed and pruned to nothing. He can make Connecticut constituents see clearly that a vote for Lieberman cost them big.

Then there's outside-- what the people can do. They can make Lieberman's life miserable, his family's life miserable, his synagogue's members annoyed.

Consider the pro-life protesters who camp outside of abortion and family planning clinics. They make the lives of the workers at those clinics miserable, They make the clients uncomfortable so volunteers are needed to escort them in to the clinics. Do the same thing to Lieberman.

There are plans for protests this week-- against health insurance corporations. People have committed to being arrested for civil disobedience. Maybe they should be protesting at Lieberman's home, his children's homes, his grandchildren's schools. They can carry signs calling him a murder, a perpetrator of the American Holocaust-- the one Alan Grayson described. They can harry him at Capitol Hill like gnats on a summer day, driving him to run away. They can do whatever is possible that is within the law and, for those who are committed to civil disobedience, they can go a bit further. This should only be done with advance legal counsel and should absolutely be non-violent. Those getting arrested should be lionized as heroes fighting for this century's most important civil rights issue-- the right to health care.

And it should not stop with Lieberman. Every senator who is blocking healthcare reform should get the same treatment-- a bi-partisan effort, but particularly the Dems who would be betraying their colleagues. Force them to cast these votes to prove what shills for the insurers they really are. Go after their families. Go after them when they attend their churches. Use signs calling them murders and whores. Give them the same treatment the pro-life protesters give abortion clinic workers.

And it should not stop with senators. Go after the CEOs. Use signs calling them killer and traitors. Go to their churches and synagogues. Go to their children's schools. Make them uncomfortable. Fight them. Give the CEOs and all the workers the same treatment the pro-life protesters give abortion clinic workers. Why go after the hourly workers? They carry out the orders to deny services, to cancel or deny contracts and health care services because of pre-existing conditions or whatever lousy excuse.

People are dying every day. Families are being brutally savaged, having to make the decision between food on the table or life-saving drugs or treatments. This doesn't happen in the world's civilized nation.

Continued>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Give-Em-Hell-Harry-Start-by-Rob-Kall-091028-10.html

[peace frog]

1. The day Harry Reid gives hell to anyone of consequence

is the day we see pigs fly and elephants roost in trees. Dream on.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[AlinPA]

3. He might give a squeak to his dog if it pees on the rug. nt

[pmorlan1]

6. Sad but true

Dream on is right. Harry Reid is more likely to "take a dive" than to take on an opponent of health care reform. As I posted somewhere else, Harry Reid reminds me of Lucy in the Peanuts strip. Remember when Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown and just as he's about to kick it she yanks it away and he falls flat on his back? That's what Harry Reid does to all of us on important issues. He pretends to support them and then yanks away his support at the last minute.

[JohnWxy]

4. RECOMMENDED!!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[Quantess]

7. Harry Reid may surprise us yet.

[The Second Stone]

8. They need to make clear they will go the reconciliation route

and find out what votes they have for a public plan on that route with the clear message that anyone not towing the party line will be removed from the caucus and all chair positions. On this one issue only.


Since we only need 50 votes to do it through reconciliation, let's find out what the best bill is that we can pass that way and then do it.

I am opposed to harassing Lieberman's family. But we need to find the most electable Democrat in Connecticut right now to start running against him. Three years is not too early. Joe has got to go. And he must be kicked out of the caucus and removed from all chairs now so that other members see the consequences.