Nate Silver: Lieberman motivated by nothing but ego and a need for attention

[BurtWorm]

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/10/somebody-buy-joe-lieberman-puppy.html


The reason this is a little scary for Democrats is because the usual things that serve to motivate a Congressman don't seem to motivate Joe Lieberman.

Would voting to filibuster the Democrats' health care bill (if it contains a decent public option) endear Lieberman to his constituents? No; Connecticutians favor the public option 64-31.

Would it make his path to re-election easier? No, because it would virtually assure that Lieberman faces a vigorous and well-funded challenge from a credible, capital-D Democrat, and polls show him losing such a match-up badly.

Would it buy him more power in the Senate? No, because Democrats would have every reason to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

Is Lieberman's stance intended to placate the special interests in his state? Perhaps this is part of it -- there are a lot of insurance companies in Connecticut -- but Lieberman is generally not one of the more sold-out Senators, ranking 75th out of the 100-member chamber in the percentage of his fundraising that comes from corporate PACs.

Are there any particular compromises or concessions he wants in the bill? He hasn't stipulated any, at least not publicly.

Might he have a legitimate policy objection to the public option? Certainly there are some legitimate objections -- whether or not you agree with them. But Lieberman's objections don't make any sense. He says he's worried about blunting "the economic recovery we’re in" even though the public option provisions wouldn't kick in until 2013. He says he's worried about debt-reduction when the public option would make the bill more deficit-neutral. And he campaigned on a public-option type alternative called "MediChoice" in 2006.

What Joe Lieberman wants, in all probability, is attention. He wants Harry Reid to have to stand up and say things like : "I don't have anyone that I've worked harder with, have more respect for, in the Senate than Joe Lieberman." He wants face time on Meet the Press. He wants to make liberals feel some pain -- especially those who tried to get Ned Lamont elected in his place. He wants everyone to know how maverick-y he is.

But even if Lieberman will probably cave, this creates real problems for Democrats....

[tridim]

1. I think he's just a dick, and he gets off on it.

[BurtWorm]

2. His last election apparently freed his inner dick.

He sees how doomed he is and he's going to spend the rest of his time in power giving that dick free rein.

[grassfed]

3. motives?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8718817&mesg_id=8718817

[bridgit]

6. Yep, Lieberman isn't working for America

[KittyWampus]

9. who is he working for? It seems Lieberman helps unleash a lot of anti-Semites.

[bridgit]

11. So that's it? Joe lieberman's ultimate defense from one of his tried & true DU apologists?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6866991&mesg_id=6873787 We should all be so lucky as to have a friend such as yourself, but I don't see allot of support for your friend, Mr. Lieberman, round here of late you're going to be very very busy today running up & down threads all day long accusing people of anti-Semitism good luck!

[KittyWampus]

15. whoever the fuck you think you are, you have no right to call me an apologist

to try and cover your bigotry. Face the truth about yourself.

Apologist for Lieberman?

Because I prefer to criticize him for his policy positions and lack of character and not drag his being Jewish into it for no reason?

You don't know what you are talking about.

[bridgit]

16. Whatever you think you are raving about I am quite convinced you feel it is important

This is the game and you are playing it: "You don't know what you are talking about" is a two-way street, honey, and you're driving on the wrong side

Your flip accusations of "anti-Semitism" "bigotry" are additions instead to other baseless cries of 'racist' 'homophobic' 'poopy pants' 'potty mouth' 'carnivore' 'nee-ner nee-ner' but every hysterical diversion is just that

Actually a hysterical prayer, as it turns out, for blinded ignorance and diversion from our understanding why we are in the ME at all, and which players and for what reasons they pressed the hardest for our preemptive interjection and who supported that the most consistantly...you don't seriously think it was *all* about oil do you? What? We cared so much for the futures of the Iraqi people we just had to kill them? Our MIC needed a place to stow some stuff? Multi faceted geopolitical opportunism? Enough to slather round the region and back to DC? Well...

You do know that several regional players are major recipients of our MIC's largess and R&D, primary of which being Israel and rightly so. But you do not need to be an anti-Semite to understand that, nor do you need to be an anti-Semite to feel compassion for the Palestinian people so look here: these knee-jerk aspersions of your's are willfully unproductive, and that is imo the pith of your failure in this exchange - you're too willing to be too flip in the course of denigrating others. This tactical smack-talk you're employing is a waste of time in a world that has little time to waste, no, I reject it...

With these histrionics such as yours it is a little wonder the field of view is so convoluted - look into your own mirror, m'dear, you seem predisposed to offering advise which you consider to be 'good'...if that's the case, then perhaps you should follow it yourself one day

[HughMoran]

4. ...the rest of the article...

"But even if Lieberman will probably cave, this creates real problems for Democrats. For one thing, Lieberman has said he won't oppose the motion to proceed with the health care bill. Instead, he'll filibuster the end result, if he doesn't like the outcome. This is actually very devious. If Harry Reid determines that he doesn't have 60 votes on the motion to proceed on a bill with a public option, then he doesn't have to bring it to the floor. Progressives will be apoplectic, Reid will lose some face, pundits will talk about Democrats having lost momentum -- but the prospects for health care reform will probably not have seriously been damaged. The opt-out will get replaced by an opt-in or maybe a trigger or co-ops or whatever and Olympia Snowe will be very happy and the debate will proceed.

But if, on the other hand, Lieberman filibusters the vote for final passage, that will have come after weeks of floor debate, amendments, and compromising on all sorts of issues. This would be a very, very serious blow to health care reform. And it makes this a much more expensive bluff to call.

The other way that this is damaging to Democrats, of course, is that it may embolden an Evan Bayh or a Blanche Lincoln or a Ben Nelson to adopt Lieberman's stance. None of these guys want to be the lone Democratic member to filibuster -- but it's much easier to defray individual responsibility on a procedural vote against your party when you have someone else joining you.

But while a Nelson or a Lincoln is liable to have a fairly rational set of concerns -- basically, they want to ensure they get re-elected -- it's tough to bargain with people like Lieberman who are a little crazy. In certain ways, he resembles nothing so much as one of those rogue, third-bit Middle Eastern dictators that he's so often carping about, capable of creating great anxiety with relatively little expenditure of resources, and taking equal pleasure in watching his friends and enemies sweat."

[Raster]

5. Silver's words ring true: Lie-ber-man is having to confront just how inconsequential he really is.

Add to the mix: the State of Connecticut is having to confront just what a liability Lie-ber-man is in the public arena. Holy Joe is gonna go what's best--or at least what he thinks is best--for Holy Joe, not Connecticut, but Holy Joe. His 15 minutes were up two years ago.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Deep down, he hates our president.

I really believe this.

And there are other factors that come into play here...

[Lex]

8. I have thought this too. He seems like a petty man.

nt

[HamdenRice]

10. Best analysis I've seen so far. He is motivated by attention and bitterness

His actions started becoming politically irrational from the time of the Lamont challenge and the way so many Democrats dissed him.

Like Justice Thomas, Lieberman is, I believe motivated by bitterness which makes him want to be simply contrarian.

[Festivito]

12. Ego and money work. /nt

[Sinti]

13. Empower America

Joe's priest is William Bennett...and Joe is Bennett's rabbi. These are the words out of their own mouths at those meetings. They've been quite cozy for at least 10 years. Joe hasn't been a liberal ever.

[ladywnch]

14. I kinda agree with this. Lieberman wants to be courted like Snowe

is being courted. He's not getting enough 'loooooove' from Reid and company. He wants to be coddled and shown 'respect'. He desperately wants to be relevant again and figures this a way to do it......'you come kiss my ass publicly and I'll vote for it.' He is a pathetic piece of shit.