Dems Worry Joe Lieberman Could Sink Healthcare

[SuperTrouper]

Joe strikes again! Once again, poisonous Joe Lieberman has taken the Democrats hostage. The former Democratic VP Nominee has vowed he will not allow health care reform that includes the public option and will torpedo the Democratic health care plan by joining a Republican filibuster.

EXCERPT:

Senate Democrats are used to the lashing their Republican colleagues dish out every week on the Sunday-morning political shows, but lately their biggest headache has been one of their own. And while they would dearly love to fire back at Joe Lieberman of Connecticut after his almost weekly bomb-throwings, there is little they can do but bite the insides of their cheeks and bear it.


On last weekend's Fox News Sunday, Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, announced that he was launching an investigation into whether the Fort Hood massacre suspect was in fact a terrorist. The Sunday before, on CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman said he would support a Republican filibuster of health care reform if the Democratic bill included a public option - as it currently does. "I feel so strongly about the creation of another government health-insurance entitlement," Lieberman told CBS's Bob Schieffer. "I think it's such a mistake that I would use the power I have as a single Senator to stop a final vote." Just days before that, he told ABC News he intended to campaign for both Republican and Democratic candidates in next year's midterm elections. And late last month, in a rare oversight hearing of the Obama Administration, he examined the legality of the President's so-called czars - a favorite bone of contention of Fox News' Glenn Beck and talk radio's Rush Limbaugh.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599193770500

[liberal N proud]

1. Joe is easy to take care of

He threatens to block the bill, Reid should threaten to take any committees away from him.

Get a spine Harry.

[karynnj]

4. Supposedly that is impossible until Nov 2010

You need an organizing resolution approved by the Senate to do it - and it would be filibustered by Lieberman and the Republicans.

[leftynyc]

7. I thought it couldn't happen until

January 2010 when the vote on committee assignments. I can wait two months.

[karynnj]

11. I think they only vote on committee assignments when a new Congress is elected

I'm pretty sure that the assignments were agreed upon in the caucuses right after the election in the lame duck session, but it might be they didn't pass the Senate until January. So, I think it would be January 2011.

[Teaser]

13. chairmanships aren't part of the organizing resolution.

The number of slots allocated is part of the resolution, but who occupies which slow is not, necessarily.

[tritsofme]

14. They actually are

The most recent organizing resolution was adopted after Ted Kennedy's death, and to allow Senator Kirk to receive his committee assignments.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=sr111-290

[ej510]

2. Even though it would be limited. They should pass the bill through

reconciliation and add a strong Public Option to it.

[Andy823]

3. All I can say is

IF this doesn't mean the end of old Joe's chairmanship in "any" committee now and in the future, then then Harry needs to go also! You don't play the game with these kind of idiots, you "TELL" them what will happen and you follow through with it. Joe is a republican, and should be given the boot, period!

[The Wielding Truth]

5. Daah.. Get him off the committees and ignore him. He'll shape up.

If not, we won't need him and he'll be in limbo. This does not concern Israel, why does he care about it?

[polichick]

9. +1

[pansypoo53219]

6. make him TRY

do NOT pander to joemental lieberfuckenputz!

[h9socialist]

8. To think he was actually on the national ticket I voted for!

With Lieberman in the Democratic Caucus, what good does it do to have a 60th vote???

Toss his traitorous ass out!!!!!!

[LiberalFighter]

10. Just castrate the SOB. Please.

Give him some of that date rape drug and leave him in the zoo with the gorillas.

Give him a weeks worth of Viagra and lock him in a room with horny lions. Both female and male. Hopefully, what I hear about male cats is true about lions.

[Garam_Masala]

12. Is this Joementum's revenge for losing nomination fight to another dem?

Joe harbors grudges!

[Thrill]

15. He needs to be kicked out of the Caucus. Listen to his garbage today

“The terrorists who planned, participated in, and aided the September 11, 2001 attacks are war criminals, not common criminals. Not only are these individuals not common criminals but war criminals, they are also not American citizens entitled to all the constitutional rights American citizens have in our federal courts. The individuals accused of committing these heinous, cowardly acts of intentionally targeting unsuspecting, defenseless civilians should therefore be tried by military commission rather than in civilian courts in the United States.”

[backscatter712]

16. Reconciliation time.

Split the bill into two: One for parts that pass the Byrd Rule and can get shoved through with reconciliation, the other with stuff (like the ban on pre-existing condition clauses & rescissions of sick people) that should have enough support to get passed with 60 votes.

In other words, make Joe Lieberman irrelevant, even if he decides to sacrifice his chairs to torpedo health care.

[budkin]

17. Let's see you do it Joe-migraine!

[DailyGrind51]

18. Not if Dems sink him first!

President Obama and Harry Reid need to haul Lieberman's sorry ass into a White House behind-closed-doors meeting.