Joe Lieberman has flipflopped on the public option, and is now stripping it from the healthcare bill. EJ Dionne of the Washington Post:
I find Lieberman’s behavior in this affair unconscionable, and I share [Ezra] Klein’s anger with him, which produced his dust-up with Chuck Lane on this blog. Klein is right that there is not a shred of principle in Lieberman’s opposition to the proposal to allow people 55 and over to buy into Medicare. Again: Lieberman supported the idea just three months ago.
Yes and why has Lieberman flipflopped? NPR tonight notioned the Connecticut insurance industry as an answer. But I naturally wondered if Lieberman doesn’t have an Israel agenda. Robert Parry argues that he does, Israel is all Lieberman has ever cared about, now he is trying to break Obama in:
If Lieberman succeeds in sinking Obama’s chief domestic priority – health care reform – or waters it down so much that it alienates Obama from his liberal base, Obama may find himself essentially the captive of the neocons, needing their blessing to maintain any political viability in Washington.
Lieberman has been careful not to connect his disruptive behavior on health-care reform to his support for Israel, but there can be little doubt that a chastened Obama, either defeated on health care or forced to sign a bill that liberals will view as a betrayal, will have much less political capital to expend in applying pressure on Israel.
A hobbled Obama won’t be able to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt expansion of West Bank settlements or to take other steps that might lead to a Palestinian state. Obama also could be pushed around himself if Israel – itself an undeclared nuclear power – decides to launch airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
I wonder if Joe’s game isn’t more subtle, building political capital on the right among Republicans, capital he can call in as the tides of delegitimation lap against the door. The American interest has sometimes found a home on the right: note that a South Carolina Republican congressman is circulating a letter to let Gazan students travel.
mr liarman flipflop flipped again hey? who whudda thunk???
I find Parry’s argument persuasive.
I wish someone would call him out, whenever he makes his claim that the nation’s financial system makes real health car reform prohibitive, and demand that he start saving money by cutting off the flow to Israel.
Or maybe he just wants to make sure there’s enough in the budget for his favorite charity case.
Lieberman is a creature most foul
He has no political future (except in the Knesset, his next stop I imagine) so he seeks to do as much damage as he can on his way out – all the while with his real agenda in mind: as the above post points out: israel
I wish he was so easy to write off, radii, but if there were anything sensible about American politics, Lieberman would have been a lame duck in the Democratic Party as soon as he endorsed the Republican Presidential candidate. Instead? He’s, effectively, the most powerful Democrat in the Senate. And he isn’t even technically a Democrat anymore.
People shouldn’t just be asking what Lieberman’s motive is, they should be taking a long hard look on where he gets his backing from. If the insurance companies were his primary backers all this time, then he wouldn’t have been talking anything for health care reform at all.
I think it’s time to recognize that US politics have crossed the threshold whereby the interest of us citizens ourselves no longer matter.
If you want someone to blame for Lieberman you need to look no further than the White House since it was Barack Obama who gave him the thumbs up sign after the last election and approved his being appointed to the chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. That, combined with his position on “health care” seems to guarantee him a spot on Sunday’s network talk shows every week.
It helps, of course, when all of those shows are on station’s whose owners and news directors have, if I may say, a pro-Israel bent.
It also helps, as both Politico and HuffPost reported, to have Rahm Emanuel pay a visit to Senate leader Harry Reid and tell him to give Slimeball Joe what he wants.
Maybe it’s time for the people to grab their pitchforks and torches and march on Washington.
I think we’re getting a pretty clear picture of who really runs the Oval Office. For the prior two terms, it was a joint affair between the former President’s political adviser and Vice President. This time around… it’s the Chief of Staff calling the shots.
One of these days, I’d like to be able to elect a President who actually becomes the President.
When Obama initially floated his settlement freeze and HCR at the same time he opened himself up to two powerful lobbies uniting — i.e. setting up vote trades to kill both initiatives. By dropping the settlement freeze it would seem that this threat reduced. In fact, I would think that if Lieberman really blocks HCR now then he might set himself and Israel up for retaliation. So I don’t think Parry’s argument holds.
Retaliation from whom, exactly?
If Lieberman screws this thing up, there will be retaliation. His image is in the toilet at this point.
No there won’t. Lieberman will simply run as a Republican. Then what? Who’s going to retaliate, exactly? He’s got every quality modern Republicans admire.
here’s another tid-bit: Lieberman may run as a Republican next time, quelle surpris!
link to talkingpointsmemo.com
So far, despite best efforts to uncover the ties that bind his aipac and insurance lobby efforts, he’s been pretty good at not providing a smoking gun. What may really be going on behind the scenes is that lobbies may make alliances on their own. We are almost certain this happens with the financial firms and wall street lobbues, who do a tit-for-tat with insurance lobbies, and possibly also a variety of business lobbies, possibly through selective pressure points on specific senators. Joe may bring in the Insurance lobby through his state, but in turn, a price may be exacted on Iran when a lobby cuts a deal with some other lawmaker, considered recalcitant on the issue.
Basically, what I suspect – and obviously have no proof to offer other than common sense – is that many lobbies and special interests cut their own deals with each other behind the scenes, then play the lawmakers according to a formula that reflects the dynamics of their states and personal vulnerabilities/ambitions. Complicating the issue are the democratic party establishment that’s forever in need of money and a white house that’s got to put a winning face on something. is there any other scenario that would help explain why Lieberman got elected and has the power he does?
This, is how corporatocracy works: the powers-that-be work a compromise among themselves, the media is sent to put a punditty smiley face on the result – pretending to debate, the congress does what it’s bid to do – professing independence, and the citizens? well, they are a “problem” to be solved, through a combination of bread, entertainment and threats to their livelihoods and [well-] beings. It’s really quite simple. The only question is – how come it wasn’t always this clear? could that be the real Obama effect? the audacity of [dashed] hope?
Now, what syvanen says gives me an idea – of the way a Lieberman may be pressured – or alternatively, an iran resolution may be scuttled (somewhat). Progressives are indeed just angry enough to where a possible chink in the PEP armor may yet show. with a little help, that is.
The “smoking gun” isn’t going to be found in Lieberman’s campaign finance, but rather the campaign finance of other Democrats. Or perhaps more specifically, the threats made to the campaign financing of other Democrats that takes place behind closed doors. I’ll give you a hint — the annotations of the loudest person on tapes of such, if they exist, will have the initials “R. E.”
“I’ll give you a hint — the annotations of the loudest person on tapes of such, if they exist, will have the initials “R. E.”
Maybe you should contribute to Blagojevich’s defense fund. If Rahm left a smoking gun anywhere, it’s probably in Chi-Blago land.
Possibly. I don’t know enough about Chicago politics to speak to that. Would be amusing and ironic if Blagojevich ends up being the one who cracks US politics wide open and lets the sunshine in. But I’m not going to hold my breath.
Months ago, after Obama’s Cairo speech, I stated that I wasn’t sure if Rahm was actually working for Obama or Israel when he neglected to plan for the possibility of both Aipac and the Pharmaceuticals joining forces against Obama.
Considering the fact that most pharma bosses are zionists and Rahm would indeed have knowledge of this, I am now convinced that he is a double-agent working against the American people.
Lieberman is enabled by Rahm at every turn.
Otherwise, that croaking ventriloquist’s dummy Lieberman would have zero air-time considering his betrayal of Obama/support for Mcain during the elections.
Folks, I ask you just to imagine what the headlines would be if Joe Lieberman’s name was Joe Abu Mohammad – as he goes about Capitol Hill objecting to healthcare reform.
It’s chilling to have awareness about why things work the way they do in US politics and why they in no way resemble sensible democracy.
I remember back when Obama first made Emmanuel his Chief of Staff. I was disappointed, I was leary, but I gave Obama the benefit of the doubt.
I’m hoping that bit of naivete that I’d apparently been carrying around back then, is the last bit of naivete I had to lose.
Chaos,
Let’s always remember that Obama-the-good is president in name only.
That his hair is more gray everyday because he realizes that being president is just another shop-front for the same bunch of gangsters who want to operate their business-as-usual without any funk or accountability.
I’m beginning to believe the last President to actually be President in the United States, was Carter.
Sad sad sad but true true true.
(forgive the repetition but I wasn’t allowed to post the simple ‘sad but true’ – too short I was told by the electronic monitor.)
Pingback: Does Lieberman have an Israel angle on healthcare roadblock? | Israel Today
Pingback: Does Lieberman have an Israel angle on healthcare roadblock? | Holy lands tours - holyland