Howard Dean - whom I greatly admire - knows BS when he sees it, and knows it in the odious person of Joe Lieberman. It must really burn someone like Dean, clearly instrumental to getting the Democrats their majority, when he sees the lying, egotistical Lieberman sticking it to the Dems by threatening a filibuster against health care reform. So, I am with Dean all the way when he calls out Lieberman on his supposed "principles."
As Dean suggested, regarding Lieberman, "I think that is a very complicated guy," said Dean. "He does because he says he's a principled guy but there's nothing principled about holding up a bill... If he was a principled guy he'd resign his chairmanship."
Again, I am with Howard Dean in suggesting, loudly, that it is "irresponsible and unprincipled to not allow the legislation to come to an up-or-down vote."
Does Harry Reid not get this? Clearly, Lieberman does not.
Howard Dean is also likely very well aware of Lieberman's long history against health care reform
Just six months removed from being saved by political irrelevancy by Preisdent Obama, Joe Lieberman has declared that he is now working to kill Obama's health care plan.... almost exactly 15 years after he helped kill President Clinton's.
This was the scene in Washington, D.C. in July 1994, as constituents rallied at Lieberman's office against his positions on health care:
About 40 labor union members, consumer advocates and other disaffected voters attended the brief rally, aimed at convincing the state's junior senator of the depth of the country's health care problem and the need for fundamental reform.
Unions, consumer advocates, women's groups and other traditional Democratic supporters have been unhappy with the New Haven Democrat for months, saying his stance on health reform is inadequate for the problems many Americans face.
The demonstrators said they want a health care package that includes basic coverage for all Americans, paid for primarily by employers, without taxation of benefits and with stepped-up controls on cost -- the outline of a bill materializing in the House of Representatives.
..."We need to bring more attention to the lousy record Joe Lieberman has on health care to make sure people know Joe Lieberman is wrong on this issue," said Leo Canty, president of the Connecticut State Federation of Teachers
(from "LIEBERMAN'S STAND ON HEALTH CARE DRAWS PROTEST; 40 AT RALLY PROTEST FOR REFORMS," Hartford Courant (Connecticut), July 29, 1994, MATTHEW DALY)
Throughout the early to mid 1990s, he showed the same willingness to fight hard against any health care reform:
Lieberman did not support President Clinton's sweeping 1993-94 reform plan, saying it was "too big, too bureaucratic, too governmental."...
The next year, he worked with a bipartisan coalition of senators, led by Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, who made a last-minute push to pass a health care plan. It would have required all insurers to accept anyone and offer them a standard-benefits plan. Lieberman ultimately opposed the measure because of its employer mandate.
His 1994 mission to kill health care utilized the same "death by compromise" tactic he seemingly plans to use now. But even if an observer somehow missed all of the above, his aversion to health care reform extended to his presidential run. In 2003, here's how one notable Democrat reacted to a Lieberman attack on Dick Gephardt's universal health care plan:
Mr. Lieberman, in a remark in the debate that was endorsed by aides to many of Mr. Gephardt's rivals today, suggested that Mr. Gephardt's health care plan could prove an irresistible target to Republicans should he win the nomination. Mr. Lieberman lumped the plan with ''big-spending Democratic ideas of the past,'' adding, ''We can't afford them.'...
How, [opponent's aides] asked, could a Democrat who is such a staunch supporter of the war, and who questioned the practicality of an ambitious universal health care plan, survive the left-leaning electorate that dominates the Democratic nominating process?
''What he's saying to Democratic voters is, 'You may not agree with me on major issues, but voters outside our party do, so I can win -- therefore vote for me,' '' said David Axelrod, an adviser to Mr. Edwards. ''I think it's a difficult task to win a nomination like that. There is a core, a heart and soul to the party, and you have to speak to it. You don't have to make yourself unelectable to win.''
Again, if Joe Lieberman were a principled guy, he'd resign his chairmanship. Of course, though, we all know that he is not. And that Reid is not taking it away from this backstabber makes the Democrats look weak because it actually makes them weak, which is bad for all of us.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who voted this onto the Rec list. Nice to see so many diaries up right now on this POS from the Nutmeg State, (where my sister and her wonderful family, all of whom despise him, are forced to live with this backstabbing smarmball representing them).