I guess we were wrong, the White House has been just as hard on Lieberman as it has been on progressives like Sherrod Brown and Tom Harkin:
Asked if Obama is as demanding of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn), whose opposition to a public option and Medicare buy-in provision led to their removal, as he has been of progressives like Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), both staunch supporters of a public plan, (White House Press Secretary Robert) Gibbs affirmatively replied: "Yes."
"The president was clear with members of the democratic caucus, including independents who caucus with the Democrats," he said.
If Gibb's claim is that President Obama has ben hard on independents who caucus with the Democrats in the Senate to compromise, he must mean Bernie Sanders, the other independent, because lately, it's been hard to see Holy Joe doing anything but hogging cameras, holding court and smiling away and how he took the Democratic caucus in the senate for a ride.
When it comes to Senator Lieberman, everyone knows where President Obama stands. He's always been a strong backer, over Progressives wishes, and has been selling us out to Lieberman's advantage for years. This is not new. He backed Lieberman then, he backed him as committee chair upon defeating an opponent Lieberman had backed, and he's backing him now.
One has to wonder why. But one thing's for sure. Spokesman Gibbs was lying through his teeth when he implied Obama had asked Lieberman to compromise, to give up something in this Health Care Reform process too.
But Mr. Gibbs wasn't done. Asked about Dr Dean's comments on the gross inadequacy of reform, after Lieberman had single-handedly, in an act that Gibbs could only characterize as abnegation, gutted the reforming aspects of the bill, Mr Gibbs made Dana Perino, former Bush administration spokesperson and recent Obama appointee (yes, things truly are coming into focus now in terms of Obama's priorities), look honest:
Asked about Dean's remarks, Gibbs declined to argue medicine with the doctor. But he "would argue policy with him."
"In 2004, Howard Dean as a candidate sought to build off an employer-based health care system in order to cover millions of Americans that currently lack coverage," said Gibbs. "There are two differences between what the president is doing in 2009 and what Howard Dean proposed in 2004. The first difference is we have an increase in the number of uninsured. The second biggest difference is... the bill is paid for, the bill reduces the deficit, the bill bends the cost curve, the bill adds insurance reforms."
Bending the cost curve? How so Mr Gibbs? Because the insurance companies and healthcare corporations have promised to hold back on cost increases in future? Because pharmaceutical companies have done the same?
Well, I suppose it's easy to show slower cost growth in 2013, when the plan finally properly kicks in, after you've let the industry http://thehill.com/... jack up rates] in advance of your toothless "reform," with nothing but sternly-worded letters in response.
I never thought I'd say this, but the bald-faced lying by this White House, via its Press Secretary, makes one almost regret Ari Fleischer.