Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “If Joe Lieberman Is the Democrats' "Lindsey Graham"...”

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November 19, 2009

If Joe Lieberman Is the Democrats' "Lindsey Graham"...

Hatched by Dafydd

...Are we required to despise him too?

Politico notes that when Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT, 85% Dem) announced he would not merely vote against ObamaCare but would filibuster it -- at least the final motion to call the question -- he burnt many bridges back to the Democratic Party:

“My sense is that when he announced he would filibuster the public option, he was saying goodbye to the Democratic Party,” said Doug Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University poll in Hamden, Conn. “My sense is, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

In a new Quinnipiac poll, Connecticut voters said by a 2-to-1 margin that Lieberman’s views on the issues put him closer to Republicans than to Democrats....

In an interview, Richard Blumenthal, the state attorney general, said he’s getting more encouragement from Democrats in Connecticut to consider a challenge to Lieberman in 2012. A February Quinnipiac poll found that Blumenthal would beat Lieberman by a 28-point margin.

Sounds grim, until one reads the next paragraph:

A September Research 2000 poll found that Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell would defeat both Blumenthal and Lieberman in a potential three-way 2012 matchup; the same poll found that 68 percent of the state’s voters support the public option.

Lieberman has turned into quite a Republican ally in this medicine-war for the soul of America:

Lieberman said it’s the “wrong time” to create a government insurance program, claiming it would increase the national debt, probably raise taxes and increase premiums for insurance holders.

But Democrats said that Lieberman is employing GOP talking points in distorting the virtues of a public option, noting it’s the one entity that could control costs -- by adding a major new provider to the marketplace that would force private insurers to reduce their costs.

Yes, "control costs" by using the same tactics as Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS): rationing or denying medical care; encouraging the old and feeble to die quickly to spare their children; and jacking up both taxes and federal debt simultaneously, thus making it nearly impossible even to pay for the programs already in place, let alone all the new or expanded programs Barack H. Obama hopes to institute.

I would find it sad but amusing if Lieberman were to lose his bid for reelection -- only to be replaced by a popular Republican former governor. But the important question remains begged: If we "Ned Lamont" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC, 82%), will we retain that seat? Or would it turn out the same as when Ned Lamont "Ned Lamonted" Lieberman in 2006?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 19, 2009, at the time of 5:28 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: snochasr

It suddenly occurs to me that "control costs" is the key argument against this so-called reform. Let us assume, quite rightly, that right now America is willingly paying a certain amount of dollars for a certain amount of care. If the government takes over the role of payer, to any degree and capacity, with an intent to reduce the amount paid-- i.e. to "control costs"-- then the only way to do it is to purchase less care. It has to be. Why would anybody want less health care?

The above hissed in response by: snochasr at November 19, 2009 11:05 AM

The following hissed in response by: Sabba Hillel

I do have a question about the analogy between Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman. If the reason that Ned Lamont could not defeat Lindsay Graham was because he was trying to pull Connecticut voters too far to the left, but South Carolina voters reject Lindsay Graham because he ist trying to pull them too far to the left then it may be that the only way they will be able to retain the seat is to run someone who is more to the right than Senator Graham, but not too far.

The above hissed in response by: Sabba Hillel at November 20, 2009 5:37 AM