What is there to understand? He is a petty, dishonest, self-centered turd. And the Dems are spineless cowards unwilling to take a stand, toss him, and force an actual filibuster.

And they will lose huge in 2010, and they won't care, 'cause they are all rich and white and protected.

jerk or moron? classic debate.

If Joe Lieberman would just (in the words of George Bush) "just cut the shit" everything would be fine.

Let's take the pledge, "From this time forward we will neither read about nor write about Joe Lieberman."

Enough is more than enough.

It's also possible that he's in the early stages of a cognitive disorder. Sure, he's been playing gotcha for a long time, but he's never been so apparently unaware of what he said only a few days ago.

Joe is hoping the Republicans control the Senate after midterms so he can with 'profound regret and remorse' add an 'R' next to his name.

Betcha he and McCain are having a good laugh in some DC watering hole right now.

Joe Lieberman behaves like a man who is receiving and following instructions. His instructions change with changing circumstances, but when push comes to shove--when he has to make good on the sale of his vote--he does what is necessary to destroy health-care reform and bolster the family business.

We need an American hero, recently returned from "the war," to talk some sense into these cowards with the talking end of a WMD. I have never witnessed such cowardice in my life. That Liebermann and the others who are holding up even the minimal form of reform can continue to block the welfare of human beings for political and financial gain is criminal...a capital crime, punishable by...I won't say the word, but you know what I mean.

Two words: Insurance Lobby.

Lieberman was the "minder' for President John McCain's gaffs in Iraq and elsewhere, so he isn't as brain dead as President John McCain. Okay -- low bar...

I think Lieberman is doing what a corrupt neo-con, corporate puppet does. And I think he is smart enough to know exactly how he is perceived across the spectrum of society. And I think he is arrogant enough not to care... and if you have doubts about him personally, he must pay people (like that nimrod with the teddy roosevelt affectation) to tell him stuff and pay attention to the public dialogue.

I bet all those Democratic Senators - and the current President - who put friendship and political equivocation over party strategy sure think they did a good job now, don't they? These are the fools and morons who decided not to accept the vote of the people of Connecticut to get rid of this putz in 2006 and went to campaign for him since they made the calculation he'd win (but he wouldn't have if they hadn't done this), and now this is what they have.

Chuck the Schmuck, Harry Reid the rest of the Democratic Senate Caucus, and Emperor Obummer can all go look the mirror when this fails and they want to see where the blame for the failure lies. Goddamned morons every last one of them! Ned Lamont would have been a loyal Democrat and a solid vote here.

Maybe they should rename the amendment the "Joe Lieberman Medicare at 55 Buy-in Amendment" -- naming it for the Joe Lieberman of a few months ago who supported it.

Put his name on it and continually praise his past support of the measure.

I doubt it would get his vote but I'd tune in on Sunday just to watch the crazy.

As disgusting as Lieberman is, I think the ire against him is poorly targeted. It's been blindingly obvious for months even to me, an ignorant rube in flyover country, that Holy Joe would do whatever he could to backstab the whole effort, probably at the most vulnerable time. Add that to the fact that the Maine gals weren't going to cooperate, and the inevitable conclusion is that they're not going to get to 60 votes. And never were.

So if they want this bill (even in pieces), they will have to do reconciliation. If they want to accomplish anything of substance on the other pressing issues (climate, finance, stimulus etc.), they will need to end the modern filibuster.

Am I really smart (not likely), or is the Dem leadership dumb as a post (naw, they couldn't be THAT dumb) or are they just not interested in succeeding?

Should I go buy that book about leaving the U.S.?

You all have such a pre-9/11 mindset. See, Joe used to be for a Medicare buy-in, but now he understands that if we allow that, and thousands of lives are saved as a result, then the terrorists win.

I'm with boolaboola on this. Joe's in it for the money. I doubt that he will be in the senate after this term. He'll likely show up as some kind of representative of the insurance industry or maybe he'll become a very well paid manager of a PAC that is full of donations from the same insurance industry.

Am I really smart (not likely), or is the Dem leadership dumb as a post (naw, they couldn't be THAT dumb) or are they just not interested in succeeding?

Doesn't matter.

What matters is that Obama has not delivered. And will not deliver.

Because he is unable to take a firm stand, and draw a line in the sand that a public option must be a part of the bill.

It's the Obama stupid.

[Maybe the time has come for you to start your own blog where you can complain bitterly all day long and into the night about how sorely disappointed you are. Maybe you can call it "Change? Feh!" and you might even draw a few readers. Consider this a warning that you are on the verge of having your comments moderated if they continue to convey the same tone they have taken on lately. --Mod]

Am I the only one who thinks that Joe may be looking to switch to the Republican's and that he is just blowing everything up on his way out.....as long as the Dems allow him to do so?

The problem with the Dumb Joe thesis is that he never accidentally stumbles onto the right position.

Although stupid AND malicious can't be ruled out.

I think Lieberman is taking orders, and those orders are coming from the insurance lobby. His wife too is quite connected to the health care business, and so I just believe that he is feathering his own nest. He will not win as a democrat or as a progressive next time, so he retires with many opportunities and many unpaid vouchers to cash in on later.

Isn't there a plum ambassadorship somewhere that Obama could appoint him to? Sure, lefty heads would explode, but it gets him out of the Senate.

Joe Lieberprck doesn't need understanding; he needs a two-by-four upside the head, so he can retire on the ill-gotten profits of his wife, the industry shill.

This isn't an issue of Joe lacking intelligence. Joe knows exactly what he's doing. He's carrying the water for both the Republicans and his lobbyist friends. He's merely a figurehead for larger interests. That's why I think it is a mistake to overly personalize the situation, e.g., Joe getting back at the left.

This is politics, folks. Joe's playing to win the policy game for his pals. Spite is merely a side dish.

Honestly I think he's just determined to spite liberals and he's too dumb to realize how much damage he's doing to innocent people..

Lieberman as the democratic poster child for "who needs facts, my mind is made up?" I'm jiggy with that.

But even if I have to accept that he may be dumb as a bag of rocks, I refuse to give up my belief that he's still a self-important, ethically bankrupt, spineless, egocentric putz.

A putz.

"Isn't there a plum ambassadorship somewhere that Obama could appoint him to? Sure, lefty heads would explode, but it gets him out of the Senate."

How about Ambassador to Texas? Or that other foreign country, Hawaii?

Or better yet, Ambassador to Lichtenstein...
No, scotch that- that country is way too small to fit Lieberman, his luggage and his ego.

Right down the middle of the plate.

God Steve,
I've been following you practically since you started blogging. For a long time you and Digby were my daily touchstones. But today... You come out and basically engage in the same kind of rhetoric my kids used to (you're stupid. No, YOU'RE stupid) and then your moderator comes down ham-fisted on gregor. You know what? Obama HAS been weak on this whole healthcare debate, and he HASN'T been there the way he needed to be. This is the comments section fergawdsakes. If you don't like it, move on.

Lieberman is not stupid; he is a jerk who is a shill for the insurance industry, period. A person does not become a US Senator from a State like Connecticut because he is stupid. His constituents have a level of wealth and education that would not elect someone who is as stupid/ignorant as he would like us to believe he is. He is greedy and all for Joe.

Opportunist. Let's not forget opportunism. I never understood the reason he was brought in on the Gore ticket.

I am told Joe was a civil rights worker in Mississippi during Freedom Summer. I don't know for sure because I never met him, but I do know that I and my "outside agitator" friends who were part of that struggle are ashamed of him now.

Maybe he's just ... gone funny in the head.

Joe Lieberman is neither stupid, nor mendacious. He is quite simply a pigmy whore - everything else falls into place once you reach that conclusion.

There's been ample speculation about what motivates Lieberman, and what compels him to be so profoundly annoying.

Besides being a complete tool of the insurance industry and an egomaniac, it could also just be that he's a world-class asshole!

Sometimes it's depressing how few technocrats we seem to have in government...

Joe wants to switch to a Republican affiliated Independent. If he kills HCR he will be a right-wing hero and will get choice committee assignments.

Then he can go on TV blathering endlessly that he represents the "center" and is rejecting the "leftist tendency of the Democratic party."

He will have no primary opponent after voting for every Republican bill until 2012, and he could very well win re-election as an independent.

He's unlikely to survive another primary challenge and unless he has the Republican nomination sewed down there's no guarantee he'd get the same support from Republicans as he did in 2006 -- when there was effectively no Republican opposition.

It is time...

It is way past time...

For Harry reid, or someone with balls in the Senate majority to channel their inner LBJ and just crush Joe.

Take away his seniority.
Take away his committee.
And most of all, take away EVERY BLEEPING NICKEL of his pork, and "leak" to all the Connecticut press exactly why the state will suffer.

Yes I know he's not up for re-election until 2012, but enough of this sh*t is enough.

Its just like giving up and giving in to a two-year old having a tantrum. it only begets more tantrums.

ENOUGH!!!

Sorry.

"Inner LBJ...."

What the hell was I thinking?

"...Lieberman can be a petty ideologue and a dimwitted annoyance at the same time." Steve Benen.

Toss in shilling for AETNA and you have the Senator from CT down perfectly!

efgoldman has it exactly right. No one in the world is more overdue for a good ass-kicking than Lieberman.

No one.

Looks like Lieberman is up to his antics again...