Will Harry Reid Stand UP to Joe Lieberman or is he " Harry's Fox in Hen House?" to Destroy the "PO?"

[KoKo]

Lieberman to Filibuster — And What’s Obama Going to Do?
By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday October 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Lieberman says he’ll join a Republican filibuster if he’s not happy with the final Senate bill:

“I told Senator Reid that I’m strongly inclined–i haven’t totally decided, but I’m strongly inclined–to vote to proceed to the health care debate, even though I don’t support the bill that he’s bringing together because it’s important that we start the debate on health care reform because I want to vote for health care reform this year. But I also told him that if the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage. Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill.”

Lieberman will vote for cloture that allows debate on the bill, but he says he’ll take the historic and unprecedented move of joining the opposition party to break the caucus’s “filibuster proof majority” if the final bill includes a public option.

Quelle coincidence! Just when triggers looked like they were dead. Here comes Lieberman to save the day. Joe, you see, like Susan Collins, prefers Rahm’s Obama’s Olympia Snowe’s triggers.

The big question is whether Lieberman will face pressure from the White House–because if he doesn’t, the search for “why Obama supports the public option but won’t actually do anything about it” excuses will have to get awfully creative.

Obama called Jay Rockefeller and twisted his arm to vote for the Finance Committee bill. So, a call to Lieberman really isn’t too much to ask. And if the President lets Senate Democrats know he wants Lieberman’s gavel to get yanked, they probably will go along at this point–especially if the Majority Leader is calling for the same thing. I doubt many in the Senate will be happy about having him undermine the caucus like this.

All of Lieberman’s power in the Senate comes from his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. Without it, he’s nothing. And since he’s not going to vote with the Democrats on procedure anyway (and why should he — they’ve coddled him all along, given him everything he wants, and gotten nothing for it) having him in the caucus is meaningless.

I wrote this when Obama made phone calls to Senate Democrats on Lieberman’s behalf, urging them to let him keep his gavel:

This isn’t about Joe Lieberman maintaining membership in a country club as a matter of feel-good “bipartisanship.” There’s actually a job that needs doing here, and when Chris Dodd and Evan Bayh say that they want Lieberman to retain his chairmanship, they are saying that the extraordinary waste, graft, greed and cronyism that have built the Department of Homeland Security to a bloated, ineffectual taxpayer-funded behemoth under Joe Lieberman is just fine.

Here’s Naomi Klein from the Shock Doctrine:

In just a few years, the homeland security industry, which barely existed before 9/11, has exploded to a size that is now significantly larger than either Hollywood or the music business. Yet what is most striking is how little the security boom is analysed and discussed as an economy, as an unprecedented convergence of unchecked police powers and unchecked capitalism, a merger of the shopping mall and the secret prison.

No-bid contracts kept from public scrutiny in the name of “national security” have built a department of unprecedented waste and theft, all rubber stamped and protected from Senate investigation by Joe Lieberman’s chairmanship. And what has it gotten us? Nothing. Basically, the Department of Homeland Security became just another front for the military industrial complex to feed off American taxpayers while neocons like Lieberman screamed “terror terror terror, just trust us.”

It’s really, really hard to believe that Lieberman is off the reservation here. He owes his chairmanship to Obama’s and Reid’s intercession after what he did during 2008.

If Obama truly does support the public option, he’ll be twisting Joe’s arm. Likewise, Harry Reid.

If they don’t, if Reid and Obama protect his chairmanship — or water down the bill to get his “support” — we’ll know it was all just a nice bit of theater. If Rahm isn’t busting his chops and leaking to Mike Allen, it’ll be a conspicuous “wink wink, nudge nudge, thanks Joe for a job well done.”

And there will be no doubt that the Democrats needs a new Majority Leader, even if we’ve got to suffer another Republican jackass in the Senate to make it happen.

More at....

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/10/27/lieberman-to-filibuster-and-whats-obama-going-to-do/

[marmar]

1. Dear Harry,

misses you!

[KoKo]

2. I'm starting to join with chorus of Progressives who want to send money to his Repug opponent

just to get rid of that "wet noodle." At least THEN maybe we can get a better Dem Leader in the Senate!

Sick of HARRY...after all these years of (your photo)...the SPINELESS HARRY...who was the Successor to the Spineless Tom Daschle. AYYYYYYYYYYY! My head aches with the years of those two...

[saracat]

5. I hope reid gets a primary opponent. Otherwise, I don't think it makes difference if the GOP wins

in Nevada. How can anyone tell the difference between Harry and a repug anyway? He has taken the opportunity of a lifetime for the dems and instead of producing a bill that provides meaningful healthcare reform, and health care for ALL Americans, he presents us with worthless drival that isn't even a good "first step"

[sandnsea]

3. Attack Harry Reid because Joe Lieberman's an idiot??

Does Not Compute.

Why not target Connecticut since Dodd is up for election and working on this health care bill. Why not get those people to decide what they believe this country stands for. And Maine, while we're at it.

Wasting time and money on Nevada is psychotic.

[KoKo]

8. Reid should remove Liberman from his Chairmanship...it's his job

to do this when one of his Dems spits in his face. :grr:

[saracat]

4. I do not support the current PO because of the opt out and the fact it ensures

few Americans not ALL but Joe doesn't seem to explain his reasons. If he was doing this, as are the Unions and the CPC to ensure health care for ALL, I think he would say so. There is something floating beneath the surface here, and you may well be correct.

[cliffordu]

6. MAKE THEM FILIBUSTER. FOR REAL.

And show it live on television.

[jwirr]

7. This is one man who should be stripped of his chairmanship if he

does not vote with us to stop a filibuster.