Now that Lieberman clinched the Monday morning headlines and will get the most attention on Morning Joe, what will drama queens John McCain and Ben Nelson do to get back in the news?
Question
This post is in: Assholes
This post is in: Assholes
Now that Lieberman clinched the Monday morning headlines and will get the most attention on Morning Joe, what will drama queens John McCain and Ben Nelson do to get back in the news?
Comments are closed.
Keith G
Let see what day is it? Isn’t it about time for another Capitol Hill affair to be exposed.
Or do you mean good headlines?
Feebog
I think Nelson is ready to douse himself with gasoline and set himself on fire on the steps of the Capitol Building if he does not get the abortion amendment into the HCR bill…
mai naem
I detest Joe Lieberpig. I truly detest this smarmy assholish hypocritical scumball piece of excrement who gets his butt kissed by Reid and Obama. Don’t they get it that they just stink when they kiss his ass?
Thoroughly Pizzled
McCain defies all expectations by deciding to vote FOR the health-care bill.
Hey, politics can’t get much more surreal than it already is.
ondioline
WHEREFORE ART THOU GIANT WHITE KITTEH
asiangrrlMN
@ondioline: You keep trying! TUNCH!
@Thoroughly Pizzled: I think this would be highly amusing, actually. It really would get him the press he so craves.
Brian J
Well, it is on A21 of the New York edition, so he’s failed to garner a front page headline.
At this point, I’m not sure if he’s trying to piss the base off in order to win points with the establishment, or if he’s merely acting out of some misguided conviction. Maybe it’s both. Whatever the case, he’s earned the wrath that is coming his way during 2012. I’m confident that any Democrat who tries to challenge him simply needs to send out a mailer with the words “I’m trying to rid the Senate of Joe Lieberman,” perhaps accompanied by a picture of him stumping for McCain. Whoever that candidate is will probably get enough money to make Obama blush.
Royston Vasey
@ondioline:
A giant white kitteh.
Max
Watching 60 Minutes (west coast), I can say without all doubt… Steve Kroft is a douchebag and Obama is rightly pushing back on his bullshit “some people say” questions.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Inasmuch it would be a riot nahgunahappen. You think he’d hand a victory to that damn darkie who dared to oppose his rightful path to the throne? I think I’ll turn Mormon with 20 wives before that happens.
(No offense to any of the Mormon faith here, I was just reaching for an extreme example.)
Chad S
Get ghey married?
R. Johnston
John McCain’s going to announce his appearance on at least two of next Sunday morning’s bobblehead retardathons.
Ben Nelson is going to announce an upcoming appearance in Playgirl.
Oddly enough, more people will throw up because of McCain’s announcement than because of Nelson’s.
John O
LOL, John.
The whole things is a wrist-slasher, for sure.
I say Nelson burns a flag in a set-piece at a fake restaurant, screaming abortion is murder, while in split-screen Lieberman (OOPS! McCain!) tells Nelson his rhetoric is too inflammatory.
And thus the OW is moved.
burnspbesq
Lieberman doesn’t represent Connecticut. He represents a small slice of Hartford.
Remember how we used to call Biden “the Senator from MBNA?”
Lieberman is “the Senator from Aetna.”
valdivia
@Max:
missed that. I have always thought Kroft is an ass. Was he worse than last time?
lamh31
Obama-porn on ABC: Christmas at the White House with Oprah
Max
@valdivia: Kroft’s worse, but Obama is short and sarcastic in the best possible way.
Obama just said, when asked about the gatecrasher’s…
Loves him.
mai naem
I would pay some serious money to somebody to pie Lieberdick. Preferably when he’s somewhere with Lindsey “girlyman” Graham and John”always good news for” McCain.
catclub
Write a bill expressly to pass reconciliation.
There should already be one written if the Dem leadership
had half a brain.
Force through those budget pieces, which the public option or medicare buy in would always be,
then do all the insurance regs stuff later.
valdivia
@Max:
oh that gives me a happy.
I loves him too.
ajr22
Nelson needs to think about an affair. The media will give him all the attention he wants. Personally I want a story about a big media personality a la John King getting busted with like 6 hookers. I wonder how the media would treat their own?
dr. bloor
If Obama really wants this–and any other fucking thing more controversial that Senate Resolutions Supporting Really Good Chocolate Chip Cookies Baked by White Moms–to get done, he needs to get on the Batphone to Reid, tell him to throw Lieberman out of the caucus, and use reconciliation to get it done.
Or, everyone can sit on their comfortable Village asses having protected the status quo yet again in the name of the Great God Bipartisan.
Gee, I wonder how this will turn out?
Yutsano
@ajr22: I’d be much more entertained by seeing what Dana Bash would do to him should that occur. Hell I’d chip in for pay-per-view to watch that explosion.
asiangrrlMN
@Chad S: I was thinking that, too.
@Yutsano: I’ll help you with the twenty wives bit!
John O
@dr. bloor:
*sigh*
I agree completely. Ram through a competent bill in reconciliation, or politically die.
kay
@Brian J:
It’s neither.
He says in the NYTimes article that 30 million people will be buying insurance and that there are “generous subsidies” for those purchasers between 55 and 65.
Of course, another phrase for “generous subsidy” is “new entitlement” and Lieberman is opposed to those “on principle” but this is a new entitlement that pays to private insurers, so that’s different than expanded Medicare.
I can’t follow this anymore if I have to listen to Joe Lieberman.
The combination of the phony, preachy religiosity and the complete dishonesty is really unbearable.
Did Harry Reid really get taken by this clown? Ten years of listening to this guy drone on and on wasn’t enough to convince Reid that Lieberman lies every time he opens his mouth?
I’m not in the Senate and I figured it out by 1998.
General Winfield Stuck
@catclub:
This is what it boils down to. And the likely end game all along. The Kabucki has been for getting to the political point of last resort, to sell to the public as that, the last resort.
But we still have a couple of steps to go for that. The first is to get something passed out of the Senate for conference and then go to the wall with recon.//
Reading between the lines of people like Harkin, Rockefeller and Schumer, who don’t want to lead with the reconciliation chin just yet, is that the liberal senators will act when it’s time.
Reid can’t stop them from acting, and seems resigned to not try, but is insisting on taking it to the very last effort to do it by regular order.
They are not stupid, and realize to fail would be a disaster for them electorally, and for Obama. And they have at least 52 votes, excluding the drama queens who make much noise, but are few.
Now come along brilliant purists and flame me for not rightfully bashing dems for failing before they have.
I am in one foul mood for politics these days.
leinie
@Max:
Saw that, loved it, and told Mr. L that he was taking a shot at our moron media.
As for Ben Nelson, the fuck, he’ll announce his intention to try to colonize our wombs through health care reform, and if we try to stop him, he’ll blow everything up. Yeah, I pretty much consider him and Lieberdick to be on about the same level as terrorists – “allow me to control the womens, or people will die.”
Become a fucking republican already, and oh, btw – Nebraska? You’ve moved to the head of the line of states that owe me an apology, jumping right over Utah and the one they owe me for that weedwacker Hatch – who remains a tool, but is at least branded correctly.
John Cole
Actually, I thought O’s best quip was when Kroft told him “Let’s move on to another topic, jobs” and without missing a beat Obama said “We can talk about Afghanistan some more.”
Guy has a great sense of humor and is quick on his feet.
J. Michael Neal
@catclub:
You won’t get to do the insurance regs later. Do you really think that Lieberman and Nelson won’t realize that Reid is running an end around on them, and cheerfully support what you need them for?
J. Michael Neal
I should add that even I’m now convinced that the best option is to try reconciliation. I just don’t think that it will win, either. Either way, I don’t think that the votes are there.
ondioline
MAGNIFICENT HUGE FELINE SHOW THYSELF STAT
cmorenc
What kind of endgame does JoeSchmoe envision for himself out of this? Are there really enough Republicans and single-issue pro-anything Israel wants Jewish voters in Connecticutt to make running for reelection feasible for him in 2012? He’s going to face one of the most determined, political campaigns against his reelection in history, in a state where the political demographics run against anyone who’s not a true democrat, with intermittent exceptions for bona fide moderates. Last time around in 2006, there weren’t simply quite enough Connecticutt voters ready to throw a longstanding Senator overboard for supporting the Iraq war. This time around, IMHO he’s stirred up such a hornet’s nest made of shit that he doesn’t have that cushion of enough democrats willing to give him benefit of the doubt to have any possible viable majority come election time.
THERE IS HOWEVER ONE WAY THIS CAN GET SCREWED UP. Guess who is considering running for US Senate from Connecticutt as an independent also? If you guessed RALPH NADER give yourself a pat on the back. Hopefully, there aren’t more than a dozen people in the entire state stupid enough to vote for Nader at the risk of handing reelection to Lieberman by splitting the progressive vote. However, unfortunately, I fear there are far more stupid people around than I wish there were, including some progressives who’d rather be pure in principle than have any hope of actually implementing progressive policies by winning elections.
SiubhanDuinne
@John Cole: Yes! That line made me laugh out loud and feel all happy.
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
I get cranky when Lieberman speaks.
The weird part is, they really hit on something with the buy-in at 55. People I talked to really liked that idea.
If this falls apart, they have to take out the mandate. Lieberman is counting on 30 million mandated federally subsidized customers, with the youngest and healthiest picking up the difference for the 55-65 older and sicker age group he just threw off the lifeboat.
I’d deny him those mandated premiums just for the sheer joy of doing it.
Make it optional. If the premium is reasonable after the capped fed subsidy, people will voluntarily purchase.
J. Michael Neal
@cmorenc: I think that Lieberman recognizes that he’s finished, and is determined to take as many people with him as he can.
asiangrrlMN
@leinie: I like the way you think and would like to subscribe to your email newsletter.
J. Michael Neal, really? You think Joe is finished and that he actually knows it? Intriguing.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Hyperbole, hyperbole and more hyperbole.
Pelosi and Reid should set up a podium and camera crew in the rotunda. That way they can get some work done while the attention whores jostle for a turn at the mic.
Shorter Obama to Kroft: “Mmm, your lunch is delicious!”
General Winfield Stuck
@kay:
I was going to describe how much I despise Joe Lieberman, but words fail. I will just say, a lot.
lamh31
I know no one but my fellow Obama-bots will probably watch this Oprah special, but still putting politics for a moment, watching this special (I know, it’s all smoke and mirrors, but still…) I still can’t understand why some wingnuts are so personally abrasive to this couple, particularly the President.
Seriously, what do they find so personally objectional about them.
maus
McCain will give yet another “respected military” opinion on Obama’s AfPak strategy.
John O
I hate Lieberman so much I sent some dough to that campaign to finance the commercial where the boss of Lieberman’s “party” calls him a fucktard, as it were.
He is perhaps my least favorite Senator. No small achievement. He’s up against the boys from OK, but at least I think those two are actual morons.
Max
@John Cole: Politico is headlining the interview as “Combative Obama”. I won’t link to them because they suck.
To borrow a line from my favorite movie, Bridget Jones’ Diary…
They can stick it fucking up their fucking asses.
leinie
@General Winfield Stuck:
Oh, don’t let my disdain for Nelson cause you to overlook the white hot blinding hatred I have for Joe Lieberman. There is NO ONE who comes close – I have a separate scale for him, and I can’t come up with the words either.
Don’t care if Glen Beck is the one running against him -his opponent gets money (assuming I have any, sucky economy that never ends for some of us) next time that fuckity-fuck runs for reelection.
Let J. Neal be right, and have the sanctimonious backstabbing flaccid old prick KNOW he is done.
valdivia
@lamh31:
O-bot here reporting I watched it and loved the banter between Obama and Mrs. O. You can tell these two really dig each other and get each other, so nice.
@ Max–what else are they going to say? This week it was that he is a pushover and next week will be that he is a thug out to intimidate the media. And the thing is that there is a bunch of people on the left who spend their time repeating the Obama is weak, he is getting rolled, blah, blah. Ok enough ranting.
Off to bed y’all.
J. Michael Neal
@asiangrrlMN: Yeah, I think he does. I also think that he’s spiteful enough to turn his demise into a political suicide bombing.
However, I can’t rule out the idea that he doesn’t realize that he’s dead, and really does think that he’s enacting a principled stand. With an ego that monumental, it isn’t hard to imagine that he’s completely delusional and utterly lacking in self-awareness.
Patrick
It would set a great precedent for the next year in the Senate, if they pulled this bill back, and sent a robust public option though reconciliation. As it stands, the Dem drama queens think that if they keep squawking, they will continue to get whatever they want. Show them that at any time they can lose everything and more. Then on future bills, they will work in good faith with some fear of being left out.
maus
I can find objectionable things about Oprah, at least. Aside from the Presidential couple, Oprah’s an irresponsible douchebag enabler. Between her hawking of Scientology, the (actual) homicidals from “the Secret”, the anti-vaccinationists, and other dangerous cancer cure-alls, she’s a horrible, horrible person.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T but just saw that Paul Samuelson died today. First American Nobelist in economics.
Dan
@Feebog: Yes exactly. Self-immolation.
Elie
@General Winfield Stuck:
Hey there General —
I completely understand your spilkes…. I am there also in so many different ways..
I really don’t have much to say to your comment — just feel anguish, anxiety…
Dave C
@ondioline:
Okay, I’m going to play the part of the pedantic asshole. The word “wherefore” as used by Shakespeare, does not actually mean “where.” Instead, it means “why.” So, when you say, “WHEREFORE ART THOU GIANT WHITE KITTEH?” You’re really not asking where the Tunch pictures are–it’s more like you’re asking why he’s so fat! :)
Person of Choler
That Lieberman, what an ingrate. He treats you this way after all the support that you progressives gave him in the 2006 Connecticut primary election.
Davis X. Machina
If you’re Nader, that’s a feature, not bug…heighten those contradictions, baby!
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
He’s really a bastard for throwing that particular age group under the bus.
55 and unemployed and thus uninsured is a lonely place, and they are RIGHT when they tell me they are afraid they will never get another good job, because there are plenty of unemployed 20 and 30 year olds to hire when it picks up. I don’t contradict them. They’re RIGHT.
They’re really scared, and they have good reason to be. If I was going to give anyone a break, it would be that age group.
Maybe they’ll qualify for Medicaid once they burn through any remaining assets, and the idiots like Lieberman will end up paying through the nose for that. One can hope.
Yutsano
@Dave C:
The funniest part being we’ve all dared to make that inquiry at one point or another. It was rather nice to see it done so subtly however.
ChrisB
Lieberman voting against the health care bill a “surprise setback?” Yeah, right.
And Obama was great on 60 Minutes. His derisive “good catch” after the CBS producer brought up the gatecrashers was perfect.
kay
@Person of Choler:
Thanks.
An admission from a supporter that Lieberman is completely unconcerned with “principle”, and is acting out of bitterness and a near-pathological self-regard.
Now we’re getting somewhere. I think it’s helpful when we cut through all the bullshit.
J. Michael Neal
@kay:
I’m 41, and I have this fear.
The Dangerman
@maus:
Excuse me? What did I miss?
Litlebritdifrnt
So in 2003 (while we had really good health insurance) we were stuck with 2,500 in co-pays which ended up on our credit report in collections( cause DH had to have knee surgery), in 2004 DH had to have knee surgery again (cause the first time didn’t work) and we ended up with another 2,500 in co-pays, in 2005 same deal, in 2006 same deal, in 2007, DH had heart issues, again another 2,500 in co-pays, same for every year since then (different issues, same co-pays) so now we have about (I have not even checked recently) we have in excess of $20k of uncollected co-pays on our credit report. We are truly and utterly screwed. This recent heart attack is going to send us into bankruptcy, or sitting with about 50K in co-pays that we will never be able to pay. Is this a great country or what?
Jean
@Max: I thought Obama slapped him down almost cheerfully. Loved it when he sipped water from the glass, paused, and said, “Let’s go back to Afghanistan,” in response to “healthcare.”
Notorious P.A.T.
LOL OL )
Oh, before I forget, read this Atul Gawande article about health care reform:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/14/091214fa_fact_gawande
You’ll feel better.
Notorious P.A.T.
@dr. bloor:
That would be my fondest Festivus wish.
Elie
@kay:
I havent been around for a few days due to the pain of my last experience on B-J (and kay, I think you were one of us slugging away). I saw a failure of rationality but could do nothing to mitigate it.
That whole interchange was beyond painful among commenters who at least purportedly share our values
In parallel pain track, watching this other unfold in the Senate leadership and with Lieberman — adds so much pain that I can hardly stand it..
I truly am in a weird and horrible place.
I.do.not.know.what.to.say. Hopefully I will have some clarity to better articulate my thoughts soon, but right now I just cannot.
General Winfield Stuck
@kay:
I feel so fortunate and grateful beyond description to have the VA for health care. And it is pretty darn good HC at that, at least after Clinton began to open it for most veterans and fund it into a primary care system. But I know what it is like to have health problems and no insurance.
There are few things in life that are more despairing than to be in that situation. We have the equivilent, or nearly so, of a Vietnam War death count every year for people who can’t get help to stay alive. Breaks my heart that my country, as rich as it is, let’s that happen.
J. Michael Neal
@Litlebritdifrnt: I hear you. All I can get is a policy that I have to fork out about $8,000 a year in deductibles and such, plus what I have to pay my therapist, since she doesn’t take the insurance provided by the company that runs the Minnesota high-risk pool.
Jean
@John Cole: @Max: I thought Obama slapped him down almost cheerfully. Loved it when he sipped water from the glass, paused, and said, “Let’s go back to Afghanistan,” in response to “healthcare.” OH, it was jobs that evoked O’s remark on going back to Afghanistan. I thought it was “healthcare.”
SiubhanDuinne
Feature article on McCain in tomorrow’s NYTimes (sorry, can’t link from BlackBerryay.
Adam Nagourney writes: “He is more visible now than at any time since the end of his presidential campaign.”
Gee, you could have fooled me Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday . . . .
Max
someone please kill me now
Chuckie T and Savannah getting their own 9am show on MSNBC.
EDIT – thankfully, I live on the West Coast and can sleep/shower thru it.
Porlock Junior
Lieberman Finks Out?
The lead headlines? Look out, the space above the fold may be grabbed by more urgent news, perhaps
Baby Pushes Bottle off Tray
It Falls to Floor
Roger Moore
@dr. bloor:
There’s no guarantee that would get Republican support. Remember, the Republicans were the ones who demanded the House reconsider its resolution in favor of Mother’s Day as a stalling tactic. I’m sure that they’d be more than happy to vote against a resolution supporting really good chocolate chip cookies baked by white moms if they thought it was a practical stalling tactic. I can just imagine Republican senators filibustering the resolution by arguing in favor of other flavors of cookies and reading their own mothers’ favorite cookie recipes into the Congressional Record.
John O
@Elie:
Hang in there, kiddo.
It always gets better.
asiangrrlMN
@Litlebritdifrnt: That’s really, really shitty. I’m sending you vibes and support, and I wish I could send you a robust healthcare reform bill as well.
@Elie: That is actually why I stay away from threads in which I see there is going to be a huge battle for whatever reason. I’m not in a place to deal with it, and it just makes me feel worse if I stick around those threads.
General Winfield Stuck
@Elie:
Just feelings. These too shall pass. :-)
Roger Moore
@lamh31:
Their African ancestry and skin color. SATSQ.
Brick Oven Bill
They won’t, but they should propose to end the fiat currency.
Yutsano
@Brick Oven Bill: And replace with what, exactly?
Notorious P.A.T.
@Elie:
If I may ask, what thread was it that made you not want to visit the Juice?
The Republic of Stupidity
Has anyone put down money on:
Porlock Junior
@lamh31:
The Obamas are one of the most likable and appealing political couples one has ever seen. That’s why they are so hated. Got to hate them to resist their appeal, if you have a small and weak mind that can’t simply face “Gee, Ronald Reagan is a likable fellow, and his ‘rather be in Philadelphia’ quip after being shot was classy, Hollywood-style, and his policies are loathesome” as most of the people here can.
BTW I figured this out in the mid-90s, when Clinton was hated as feared as some kind of DANGEROUS LEFTIST. I wondered about that till I figured out how it came from being a person it is difficult not to like. (In my case, to like a whole lot more than I did his policies.)
The Republic of Stupidity
@:Elie
Word, Elie?
When you come thru the door insulting people… they’re simply NOT GONNA be happy to see you…
Elie
@Notorious P.A.T.:
the thread a couple of days ago on Matt Taibbi’s article and comments about Obama’s “progress” or lack of it (depending on your point of view)
Elie
@The Republic of Stupidity:
Whoa —
Not going there — sorry.
Not going to make that mistake again or revisit old dialogues where there was plenty of wrong to go around. I definitely own some of that but enough
Also, I dont think that I addressed you during that whole sorry episode. Its bad enough dealing with the direct issues with people, much less the peripherals..
I have and wish no argument with you Republic… don’t know who you are and where you are going with your comment, but I am not going anywhere..
Have a nice evening…
Brick Oven Bill
We should tie the dollar to either land or metal Yutsano. This will prevent this government from taxing us through inflation. The printed money is presently going to Geithner’s enablers.
And then Nelson and McCain should propose a blanket 30% tariff on imported goods. This would raise revenue, and protect domestic jobs.
All that crap under this years’ Christmas tree will probably have been made in China. This is crazy.
Elie
@asiangrrlMN:
Case in point…
Good advice. Will tend to take that from now on..
You Don't Say
Only good thing to come out of this:
Jon Stewart will be doing his Lieberman impression — always cherished in my household.
asiangrrlMN
@Elie: I just know that for me, it’s not worth it. I come to BJ to be informed and to have thoughtful-if-snarky debate on issues that matter to me. I’ve had my mind opened, and I have changed my opinions as a result.
If I know a thread will be mostly filled with those with whom I cannot have a debate that isn’t increasingly frustrating with the two sides slinging mud back and forth, I steer clear.
egosion
Isn’t this another sign that the U.S. truly is an ADD country?
Lieberman said what?
Oh look there shiny new news way more interesting than what happened to Valerie Plame or the torturing stuff or if our dear leader is a muslin or the fact that our economy is in the shitter and we owe China more than Walmart is worth.
What is important today is what peaople we asume are more cleverer than us decide is important.
If there where more thinking people they would not let ONE democratic senotor get away with this shit because they believe their importance is above a nation.
Yutsano
@Brick Oven Bill: Been there, tried that, wrecked our economy beyond what is happening now. But then again you’ve been pretty slow on the uptake on a few matters.
Elie
@asiangrrlMN:
I hear that loud and clear and agree — I always valued open discussion and “debate” with an eye on information exchange and learning —
Somehow in all of that thread, that is not what happened and I found myself in a gunfight where there was little but gunfire… For all my sharp retorts, the wounding was mine… It really hurt to be in that sort of exchange with fellow lefties. I think that I might have laughed off that exchange with right winged trolls.
I think I would have been smart to just leave at a point in time but I continued past that point and got what I got.
I will get over it but not the sense of frustration for an opportunity lost.
Joey Maloney
@lamh31:
5 words: N*ggers in the white house. SATSQ.
Kristine
@kay:
Did Harry Reid really get taken by this clown? Ten years of listening to this guy drone on and on wasn’t enough to convince Reid that Lieberman lies every time he opens his mouth?
One of the worst decisions Obama & Co. ever made was to throw this man a lifeline after the election.
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
I would have thought that political animals were cannier beasts, but I guess not. Didn’t they realize that he lives for this shit?
maus
@The Dangerman: “Excuse me? What did I miss?”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/15/arizona.sweat.lodge/
maus
@Brick Oven Bill: “All that crap under this years’ Christmas tree will probably have been made in China. This is crazy.”
Like Republican faux-independents such as yourself could ever organize a boycott of Wal-Mart.
Anne Laurie
I’ve been assuming Liebergoniff knows that after the next election he’ll be nothing more than Mr. Haddassah, beard for the insurance lobby, and he’s striving to achieve sufficient value that the megacorps will give him equal billing. Although being the flaccid little prick that he is, just trying to make the maximum number of people miserable is probably a close second in his mean little plaque-ridden brain.
Yutsano
Here is what I want Lieberman to gag on more than anything else:
Israel has a universal health care system.
Now if it’s good enough for his home country, why in the hell is it such a bad idea for us?
Wile E. Quixote
@kay
I’m waiting for someone in that situation to walk up to Holy Joe and put a bullet in his face. What do they have to lose? They’ll get free health care in prison. I don’t think that Lieberman cares about running in 2012, he’ll just go to work for an insurance company or lobbying for big pharma like his whore of a wife.
I have to wonder what dirt Holy Joe has on the Democratic leadership? He’s gone out of his way to shit on the Democratic party every chance he gets and they still haven’t dumped his ass and said “Guess what Joe, you’re a caucus of one. Now go fuck yourself.” Does he have pictures of Harry Reid checking into a Nevada motel with a case of Crisco, a set of rubber sheets, two wetsuits, a black dildo and a pair of male goats? Why is it that they’re willing to put up with this sawed off little shit who sounds like he’s stuffed his mouth full of his wife’s used sanitary napkins? It sure as Hell ain’t his charisma.
Wile E. Quixote
@Yutsano
I’d love to see someone ask him that. Or a full page ad in the New York Times with a picture of Lieberman at his most prissy and self-righteous at the top and the caption. “If universal health care is good enough for your friends in Israel then why isn’t it good enough for the Americans who pay your salary and give Israel billions of dollars a year in foreign aid?”
mclaren
I’m going with “wetsuit” and “dildo” on this one.
mcd410x
If this were being done by Republicans, all you would hear from every single GOP senator/representative would be “up or down vote … UP OR DOWN VOTE.”
Instead, we let Lieberman drive the bus.
Heaven help us.
Ranger 3
Crash a White House party.
MBSS
@Elie:
yeah, you missed the opportunity to realize that taibbi is right.
Yutsano
@Wile E. Quixote: Israel doesn’t even have a single payer system per se. Instead it’s four private insurers supported by the government who have mandatory requirements that have to take all citizens. In other words very similar to Switzerland or the Netherlands. Why can’t that be developed here? I’m not a single payer or die sort, I just want whatever the fuck is gonna work.
fasteddie9318
They’ll make out with each other on the Senate floor.
That is all.
jl
Been away from the news horrors for a weekend, and I come back to see this cr*p again.
Lieberman is becoming a political monstor
All of his self-styled pragmatic reasons for opposing health care reform have been blown to bits: it won’t blow up the deficit, for example. We have most of the cost controls he says wants. His reasons on principle are BS: Liberman loves him some federal flood insurance program for wealthy CT homeowners. His claims that a public option or expanded medicare was not part of previous Democrat campaigns has been shown to be damned lies.
Nelson is spouting similar BS.
The Senate has becomea toxic harmful corrupt institution with too many toxic corrupt bad faith political monstrosities.
The health care debate, more than any other domestic policy debates has revealed many of our leaders to be the most contempible, ignorant, corrupt blood-thirsty, heartless bastards imaginable.
The Senate is so pathetically corrupt, it is full of such arrognat miserable little pissants, corrupt two-bit wardheelers, pieces of fresh stinking political shit, whoare perfectly willing to let people die for their rich buddies and and some wads of cash stuffed into their pockets (excuse me, I am unfair, I meant their campaign coffers, and their sweetheart corporate board and insider trading deals).
If it is not too late, if were I Obama, I would tell Reid is time to do the following (otherwise I won’t lift a fingers for his stupid desparate re-election campaign):
1. Do as much of the health care bill as possible with Senate reconciliation
2. strip Lieberman of every Gdamned thing that the Democrat leadership can constitutionally, lawfully and Senate rulesfully strip him of. Give him an effing seat next out in the coatroom. His office will be a supply cabinet in the most crowded public restroom in the Capitol.
3. Kick the little jerk out of the caucus.
This will serve as wholesom encouragement to other slime in the Senate like Conrad, Nelson, Lincoln, etc.
Remember that over 15 other middle and high income countries have better popualtion health, hgher lifespans at birth, at 40, at 60 and 65, at a far cheaper cost than the US does. They have universal coverage. They do it with private systems, social insurance systems single payer, and national health services.
In edit cos I pressed the submit button by mistake: their populations drink, screw, smoke like or more than we do. Australia is now fatter than we are, but they have longer lifespans. Did you know that Swedish preggers women drink like they do in the US? Young people tend to do silly things all over the world.
Our health care system sucks. That is a damn fact. Period. Corrupt money going to corrupt cheezy jackasses in the Senate is the reason we cannot fix it.
Time to stop the BS. The crusty old army officer Pat Lang called the US ‘an emerging third world nation’ on his blog recently. It makes me wince, but he has a point.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/health-care-reform-in-peril.php?ref=fpa
freelancer (itouch)
My dad thinks Nelson is acting in the best interests of the majority of his constituents. He said he respects hairdo for standing on principle against his own party. Oh dad. You’re adorable.
mai naem
@Roger Moore: Not just their African ancestry. It’s that they are an Ivy League educated couple who have beaten white folks at their own game. No baby mamas. No welfare queen stuff. Furthermore, he was from a single parent family and Michelle’s from a stable old fashioned nuclear family and they themselves have an apparently happy “normal” family. Doesn’t fit any GOPr stereotype of black folks.
ominira
Maybe someone will greet Lieberman in the same loving manner that Berlusconi just got greeted by a umm “fan” and this will convince him of the need for health insurance for all.
Wile E. Quixote
@J. Michael Neal
That fucking sucks, and the system screws you even further by not allowing you to deduct it from your taxes, which is completely unjust.
I’ve been lucky, I’ve dodged three health insurance bullets, my amputation in 2003, the revision in 2004 and the spinal fusion that I had last month. I had either decent coverage through COBRA, and could afford it, or had decent coverage because Washington state has some very liberal laws dealing with health insurance. But this infuriates me. I’ve met people who were in the same situation I was, losing a limb due to a severe accident where the person who caused the accident had no insurance or was underinsured and who didn’t have decent health insurance and it really fucked them over. Good prosthetics aren’t cheap, amputees grimly joke that “…they cost an arm and a leg” but they can make the difference between someone spending the rest of their life on disability or being able to live a decent and fulfilling life. But insurance companies don’t give a shit about this, if someone ends up on SSDI it doesn’t come out of their pocket, so they nickel and dime people and fuck them over on prosthetic coverage.
It fills me with rage to see grandstanding shits like Lieberman, Baucus and Nelson, all of whom have fantastic health care that we, the taxpayer, are paying for, who are so completely and totally unaware of the suffering that our current health insurance system causes and who are so beholden to the companies that are causing much of that suffering.
It also fills me with rage that Harry Reid doesn’t seem to be doing anything about this and neither does President Obama. If the Democratic leadership thinks that voters are going to turn out en masse in 2010 because of their support for President Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan they’re dropping brown acid and smoking bad crank. If American voters don’t see the Democratic Party accomplishing anything significant vis a vis health care that, combined with the lousy economy is going to seriously depress Democratic turnout. You can call people stupid for not turning out, but when the only message that your party can deliver is “well, we’re not as crazy as the Republicans are, but we’re not doing anything to improve your lives” you really don’t have a lot to sell.
fraught
The hatred I’m seeing expressed here for this repulsive little ball of knurr cannot be universally felt can it? I know the wingnuts often hold their noses while they heap praise on the more odious of their own (imagine the urge to flail while in a bearhug from Rush) but when they cluster around Joe in those press apperances he does every day they seem to sidle right up to him with big smiles. Wetpants Graham often seems to want to clutch him to his breast as if he’d just farted lavender.
Does that whine pluck the strings of their hearts or are they just skilled actors muttering to themselves inside “This little prick gives K*kes a bad name.”
Wile E. Quixote
@Yutsano
Works for me, and again I’d love to see someone rub Holy Joe’s face in it.
oh really
The New York Times reporting on this says:
Democratic leaders were “surprised” at Lieberman’s objections. I think that qualifies as empirical evidence that Senate Democratic leaders are among the dumbest people on the planet. Attention hog Joe Lieberman goes on television and says what he knows will get him the most attention and Reid and Schumer are surprised.
People actually vote for these guys. Unbelievable.
jl
@Wile E. Quixote: It won’t work here because the US health insurance and health plans and other big corporate medicine could not rip people off and do whatever the hell they want for as much money as possible.
And these corporate cruds are willing to give legal bribes to Senators to keep everything going to hell in way that maximizes their profits, power and prerogatives, for as long as they can keep the current racket going.
That is about all there is too it.
mai naem
If Bernie Sanders pulled a Lieberdick, Reid,Schumer et al would have no problem telling him to take a hike but Lieberdick gets a blow job every fucking time he whines. Ugh, what a nasty old man and wtf does Hadassah see in this prick? Truly ewwww pukey ugly.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I would like to see our representatives brought back to reality by having their pay indexed to the average pay of the citizens they represent, same with their health care. Tie their wages and the level of health benefits to the ‘health’ of the constituents and I bet we would have representatives who stop favoring big business over the conditions their constituents live under. Same with their retirement plans, nothing better than what the average citizen has.
Fat chance of that ever happening. Those fuckers have tossed the ladle and are drinking the gravy directly from the boat. They are the kings and we are the subjects.
Right now they live in a bubble they have created, insulated from the reality of what everyone not in DC faces. They pay lip service to those who gave them their job and in the meanwhile they are stuffing their pockets with cash and lining up everyone else in their families so they can cash in too. This won’t change because they hold the keys to everything, nothing changes because they are not going to ever vote to take something away from themselves.
The foxes are guarding the hen house. Make that the wolves.
Ruemara
I’m gonna go with fellate a donkey while being rogered by Mike Tyson in a Bloomingdale’s christmas display with giant “owned by ___ Co.” on his back and logos on his face.
Wile E. Quixote
@mai naem
Yeah, no kidding. The whole Gooper stereotype of black folks seems to be a massive case of psychological projection. I mean look at the family lives of famous Goopers such as
Ronald “Jane Wyman? Who’s Jane Wyman?” Reagan
John “Will you keep quiet if I give you $90k and invite you to the Family picnic and cross-burning?” Ensign
Chip “It’s OK to cheat on your wife as long as you’re doing it at the Family compound on C street” Pickering.
Larry “Can we keep my ‘wide stance’ on the DL?” Craig
Jim “Did you know that the Appalachian trail begins in Buenos Aires?” Sanford
Rush “Teh gheyz ruined my three marriages” Limbaugh
David “Do these adult diapers make my ass look big?” Vitter
Newt “I’m a Catholic now. So all of my previous divorces never happened” Gingrich
Charlie “I’d like you to meet my beard, I mean my wife” Crist
Mark “Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison” Foley
Rod “It’s your fault for not saying ‘green balloons’ as I was choking you into unconsciousness, bitch” Jetton*
and tell me that Republicans aren’t seriously fucked up, and seriously pissed off that we have a black Democrat in the White House who actually has some of those “family values” that the Republicans keep bloviating about and who did better in school than all of them.
*Did I miss anyone?
mp1900
@General Winfield Stuck:
Gives me a glimmer of hope.
I’m in that same foul mood, can’t stand to even listen to Olbermann anymore.
mcc
@Yutsano:
Um, isn’t that basically exactly what the current Senate “compromise” bill does?
Mnemosyne
@Wile E. Quixote:
That’s one of the reasons they hated the Clintons, too. Sure, they had marital problems, but they actually worked them out instead of Bill marrying his multiple mistresses like Newt did. For all the sneers about the Clintons having a “marriage of convenience,” they sure have managed to keep it running.
That’s why it’s so much fun to watch Al Franken stand up in front of the Senate and refer to Frannie, his wife of 32 years. He just has this smirk of, “That’s right, bitches, I’m one of those evil librul Hollywood elitists and I was able to keep my marriage together, unlike you.”
(Not that there’s anything wrong with being divorced, but most people are smart enough to realize that trying to claim the moral high ground afterwards is pretty shaky, especially if there was cheating involved.)
Mouse Tolliver
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I wonder how many individual Americans will have to file bankruptcy before we have to declare America as a whole to be officially bankrupt. I ponder this every time I see an obstructionist on TV talking about how health care reform will bankrupt the country.
Mouse Tolliver
@mai naem:
I thought Mrs. Lieberman was suckling at the insurance industry teet. They’re two rotten peas in a pod.
GReynoldsCT00
I predicted Lieberman would take the baton from Nelson around Thursday or so, no applause, just money. God I’m ashamed of the Asshole from CT.
Person of Choler
Kay (58) Perhaps Lieberman is following his own principles, which may differ from yours. Or, he may be listening to his constituents, whose priorities may not be aligned with yours.
His experience in 2006 has probably made him more sensitive to the voters at home and less to progressive agitators.
Just a thought.
The Sheriff Is A Ni-
@Person of Choler: And perhaps Santa Claus really will give you a pony this Christmas.
burnspbesq
They can blame India and China for blowing up the Copenhagen talks and demand that Obama not go over there later this week.
kay
@Person of Choler:
Well, except he ran on a Medicare expansion in 2000, and stated three days ago he was waiting for the CBO score, and then went on television and announced he’d filibuster anything with a public option before meeting with Reid an telling him.
But, sure. It’s “principled”.
He screwed the majority leader and the President, two people who saved his worthless ass when Connecticut Democrats turned out in droves to throw him out.
He had to be rescued from voters, because he had screwed them over so bad. Now he’s screwing the people who threw him a lifeline. Admirable.
Kristine
@kay:
He had to be rescued from voters, because he had screwed them over so bad. Now he’s screwing the people who threw him a lifeline. Admirable.
I posted this last night, but the comment was apparently eated even though when I tried to post it again, I received an error message that I had already posted.
Anyway:
The Parable of the Snake:
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It never ceases to puzzle that so many supposedly astute political animals were taken in by Lieberman. You’d think they’d have known better, but I guess not. If he doesn’t lose his committee chair over this, they are all even more gormless than I think they are.
Kristine
@kay:
He had to be rescued from voters, because he had screwed them over so bad. Now he’s screwing the people who threw him a lifeline. Admirable.
I posted this last night, but the comment was apparently eated even though when I tried to post it again, I received an error message that I had already posted.
And…it tried to eat it again. Doesn’t BJ like me anymore?
Anyway:
The Parable of the Snake:
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It never ceases to puzzle that so many supposedly astute political animals were taken in by Lieberman. You’d think they’d have known better, but I guess not. If he doesn’t lose his committee chair over this, they are all even more gormless than I think they are.
Kristine
@kay:
He had to be rescued from voters, because he had screwed them over so bad. Now he’s screwing the people who threw him a lifeline. Admirable.
I keep trying to posted this, but the comment gets eated even though when I tried to post it again, I received an error message that I had already posted.
And…it tried to eat it again. Doesn’t BJ like me anymore?
Anyway:
The Parable of the Snake:
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It never ceases to puzzle that so many supposedly astute political animals were taken in by Lieberman. You’d think they’d have known better, but I guess not. If he doesn’t lose his committee chair over this, they are all even more gormless than I think they are.
Kristine
Anyone remember The Parable of the Snake?
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. “Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!” The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It never ceases to puzzle that so many supposedly astute political animals were taken in by Lieberman. You’d think they’d have known better, but I guess not. If he doesn’t lose his committee chair over this, they are all even more gormless than I think they are.
Kristine
Anyone remember the parable of the Snake? “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
It never ceases to puzzle that so many supposedly astute political animals were taken in by Lieberman. You’d think they’d have known better, but I guess not. If he doesn’t lose every scrap of power he possesses over this, they are all even more gormless than I think they are.
gbear
I do now.
Kristine
@gbear:
Sorry about that–I tried to post last night, and my comment was eated. Tried again this morning, and received error messages. Let JC know, and he found all my comments in his spam folder and released every last one.
JR
Is Larry Craig in town. I have an idea that will get headlines (and possibly a sitcom deal with ABC).