I guess there's not much choice then:

Either he votes with the Dems or he doesn't, and loses his chair and the reform plan goes to reconciliation.

Fuck him.

Susan of Texas has a nice john bircher seed catalogue over at "The Hunting of the Snark" . It is a skeletal framework around which the dear droopy independent for jokementum is fatally entwined . Dear joe is not mentioned but the poisoned earth from which he takes his charge is indelibly written in the master of nothing and the student of shame .

But if the reform bill let's some eligible consumers pay premiums for a public plan, Lieberman would rather let the status quo continue indefinitely, just as it is.

Steve, let's is a contraction of let us. The present third person singular of let is lets, without the apostrophe. Please don't use one for the other.

I wouldn't complain, but this is the third time in the last several days, and it just make's you look silly.

It's very refreshing to see a politician put principles above party and ideology.

Little wonder that Senator Lieberman was purged from the Democrat Party, since bipartisanship is a meaningless term under the Pelosi-Reid regime on Capitol Hill.

Pretty sure you're reading this all wrong, Steve. Look at his words again -- "nothing is better than" health care reform including a public option. How can support be more unequivocal than that? /sarcasm

GOOD GOD, but I wish some 'newsperson' with a command of the FACTS would interview Ol' Joe- or any of the other bloated pontificators spewing tripe, unchallenged, over the airwaves. . .

Holy Joe is, indeed, serving his constituency here. Remember that Connecticut if the home of many insurance companies large and small. Those companies are his true constituency--not the people of Connecticut.

With that in mind, there is one kind of health reform Joe would vote for enthusiastically: A mandate for everyone to buy private insurance. No matter how such a scheme is implemented, it would result in trillions in profit for the insurance companies. And Joe would love it, and feel the love in return.

Is it just me, or does Joe Lieberman seem a little too desperate to land his spot on the Sarah Palin ticket in 2012?

Lieberman must indeed have slipped into a complete psychotic state. Since he managed to get reelected with coalition of Republicans and ignorant manipulated Democrats, then was able to worm his way back into the Democratic caucus, he became obsessed with delusions of adequacy. His mental state of mind is fed on the attention that he is able to engender and he is slipping completely over the edge. He even thinks that he can be reelected in Connecticut and continue to milk the insurance corporations.

He has simply begun his post-senatorial career -- lobbying for insurance companies -- early. Everything he does is geared toward this. Everything.

make's you look silly

ye's it sure doe's

Joe Lieberman is a pox on all our houses. If a decent house care system existed in this country, a cure for "Connecticut's revenge" might be available. This is probably why Joe is dead-set against health care reform.

By the way Joe, Halloween is over, you can crawl back into your crypt until next year.

One word: reconciliation.

This is really Obama's fault.

All he needs to do is promise to drop a few bombs on Tehran and Joe will be back on board with the Democratic agenda.

Joe's just mad because they took away his precious and obsolete F-22's. Period.

I went in for my annual eye exam Saturday morning, so I asked the woman in the office about healthcare reform. I figured it would be interesting to get the view of someone on the inside of the business. She said, "I don't know if it will be an improvement, but something has to be done." Sixteen years ago her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He's been cancer free for ten years. She said they were lucky. they didn't have to file for bankruptcy like many do. They were able to sell everything they had...the house, everything...to pay for what their insurance wouldn't cover. Then they had to borrow to pay the rest. She detailed the shell game the insurance company played to deny coverage. They were effectively caught in a vice.

I wish the countless stories like this would get the attention the tea baggers get. Maybe scum like Lieberman couldn't be so cavelier if the truth was forefront and center everyday.

I wish the countless stories like this would get the attention the tea baggers get.

Not putting those stories front and center six or eight months ago is the abject messaging failure of Obama and the Democratic caucus on this issue. People who've never experienced what this woman has, or know someone who has, have been allowed to think that healthcare-related economic disaster cannot happen to them because they have insurance. The message should have been coming through loud and clear: In the current system, we are all at risk.

Relying on his government sponsored health care, Lieberman is out of touch with what middle class Americans are struggling with: a broken health care system complete with insurance industry "death panel" decisions of coverage or no coverage!

Joe needs to stop being the apologist of a broken system, and begin to help the citizens of Connecticut and the rest of us in America. -Kevo

I agree Reconciliation is a Valid option to
"Paid-For" Joe.
Main Street voters in his Home State must reject him.
His Dem Committee chairmanship should be history if he pulls this crap !
This Senator has lost his way !

Join the Facebook group "Joe Lieberman Is A Douchebag."

Personally, I think calling Lieberman a douchebag is an insult to actual douchebags, but it will have to do.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=162150099156

And a big, fat, thank-you to Barbara Boxer, who supported Holy Joe instead of Ned Lamont, and to all the darling Democratic "leadership" (has a word ever been so sadly abused?) who did the same.

With us on ... what?

And I can't wait to hear the Nobody Could Have Predicted Democratic Chorus in four-part harmony on this one. Nobody who's been dead and buried for the last decade or so could have predicted this ... but just about anyone who can still fog a mirror could have.

Except the Democratic leadership, so-called. Not them. Come to think of it, I'm not sure they've actually passed the mirror check -- and let's not even think about the spinal exam.

He's never going to forgive us for not wanting him to be President. Never. I suppose there's some point in keeping him in the caucus so that it is possible to threaten his chairmanship -- but that only works if leadership is really willing to do it this time.

If not, why not let him go make trouble for the Other Side? He's never going to forgive them for not wanting him on their presidential ticket either; watching him working out his issues in their caucus would at least be good for some cheap entertainment.

Joe Lieberman lobbies to send our taxpayer dollars to Israel, Israel as far as I know has universal health care. Something is not quite right here!Old traitor Joe will fight to the death to keep us from getting health car reform.Does anyone here remember the speech old Joe gave when he was running for vice president, when he said he would fight for healthcare reform for all Americans. Old Joe speaks with forked tongue.

Whatever happened to Zel Miller? He seemed to have disapeared after exhausting his 15 minutes of usefullness to the GOP. Would Joe disapear as quickly once he completely embraces the dark side?Even if he becomes a republican, he would never be accepted by the party faithful. Inspite of the many occasions in which he has bent over backwards (or forwards) for the republican party (remember those pda's with George Bush and John McCain?)he could never be conservative enough for republican voters. However, Joe could find a niche as a novelty act in the GOP media circus. The creatures that inhabit the primordial ooze that follow the circus, the kind that listen to Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest of the insane clown posse (no offense to ICP)on a daily basis, would be a receptive audience for Joe's self-serving shtick. Joe should fit right in.

Lobbygow:
" 'make's you look silly'

ye's it sure doe's"

exactly what I was thinking.

noncarborundum: Did you know that at the bottom of every post is a link to Steve's email address? Grammatical errors may make the poster look silly, but pointing them out in public when you could have done so privately makes you look like an ass. Steve writes over a dozen posts a day. Some mistakes are bound to get in there every so often.

The better Lieberman pull quote from Face the Nation:

"I wish people would come out and debate me on the Public Option"

Then why is he still ducking Rachel Maddow ?

Senator Palpatine (I-CT) is much too suddenly strident to be taken at face value. He has a record of being a fairly dependable vote on liberal measures like health care reform. Besides, he can always get another round of interviews after discovering that the bill reduces the deficit after all.

I still believe he is negotiating and there's a good chance he'll come around at voting time, especially if we bomb some swarthy Arabs at some point in the future. Senator Palpatine is an evil pragmatist with a severe narcissistic streak. The best way to handle him is to indulge his ego, bite your tongue and quietly bankroll a mainstream liberal for 2012.

Whatever Harkins' reasons were for wanting to end the filibuster back in 1994, you can bet Kapo Joe's reason was because the Republicans had taken power and he wanted to help them to put his party in the political ghetto, just like the Kapos in Poland helped the SS put Jews in concentration camps 65 years ago. Traitor Joe has been a traitor a looooong time.

http://bit.ly/LoathingLieberman

Don't need to debate Lieberman, I've already debated my neighbor, who also works for an insurance company, but at least is not a liar.

I agree with Quinn.

Joe is going against what the majority of his constituents want...so it's rather obvious he's siding with private ins because they have bribed him. His arguments make no sense and his feigned outrage is all phony. If he sides with a filibuster his career is over so he won't go that far but he does have a purpose to serve.

A "trigger" option is no public option at all and just ends up making priv ins mandatory AND it is the plan the Obama WH (with semi-president Rahm Emanuel) insisted upon. The Huffington Post's reporters investigated what went on in closed meetings with Obama and Reid's team and the WH was very angry that Reid went with an "Opt out" bill to bring to the floor and even told Reid "Don't come complaining to us when you don't have enough votes".

Reid continued with the opt out solution in the public option because he knew he had the votes... against the WH's wishes however. Then suddenly(why at this particular time when it looked like the opt out was all but certain)...suddenly Joe Lieberman will not allow the vote to come to the floor if it has a public option (like the trigger, no option at all). That he will suppport a republican filibuster saying we don't need reform at this time with a public option. Whamo....perfect timing to stop the opt out public option. Joe could have said this at any time but waited till Reid had this bill coming to the floor...then boom.
Recall it was Joe who made sure those torture photos would never be released by the FOIA...since Obama couldn't get that done through the executive branch...here comes Joe to do it for him.

Those explaining the public option in the bill to anti reform senators makes them see it is really virtually meaningless and the bill will result in a huge give away to Private ins.

The senate is acting like a corporatocracy where no matter what the public majority demands, senators tell us we can't have it because the corporate donors and their army of lobbyists will not allow it.

Only by ending the abused filibuster rule will the majority be able to pass legislation the public wants. It removes the blackmail power of people like Joe LIEberman who just told the people of Conn. "Go screw yourself".

"...Not putting those stories front and center six or eight months ago is the abject messaging failure of Obama and the Democratic caucus on this issue..."-shortstop

Where would they put them. With our conservative corporate media...the only places left were WH web sites and senators like Bernie Sanders web sites.

With private ins spending $4mil/day to block such stories...where would anyone be able to tell their stories to the public? There are thousands of horror stories concerning private ins.