In reading the posts and diaries today about how the White House is pressuring Senator Reid to cave in to the demands of Lieberman (and then oh-so-shockingly, we now find that is exactly what happened), I think there are a couple of things to keep in mind about the powers that be.
First off, how shocked are we to be at Lieberman? He's a slime, he's a weasel, he's a serious hypocritical asshole and more. But we all knew that, did we not? We knew then and we certainly know now that he'll continue to pull this bullshit until the Senate bill is so-watered down it will be no better than DOA, even when combined with the House bill. Being mad at Lieberman is like cursing Satan to me.
Second, how shocked are we to be at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid? If someone could point to me just one instance to which Reid demonstrated a backbone of any kind, I would be shocked out of my flippin' socks.
Just one will do.
So we come to my point - who allowed this to happen? Who allowed this process to cave in completely to the demands of those like Lieberman who's nothing less than a hand puppet of the corporate health care lobbyists in his backyard?
Who told Reid to cave in (allegedly, though multiple sources supported the contention)?
Who sat back on their hands and allowed the Democratic-led Senate to, well, be the Democratic-led Senate and completely destroy a worthy and extremely necessary bill?
Who could have easily taken the reins at any given fucking time and told Senator Reid to pass a public option and/or Medicare expansion? Christ, who could have told him from the get-go to push single-payer, so at least we could have "settled" for the lesser public option?
Who could have told Senator Lieberman to take a fucking hike at any given point of time but apparently wanted a deal cut with him instead?
Who refused to listen to the majority of American citizens who wanted a public option in poll after poll, only to have it likely completely destroyed along with anything resembling it?
With all due respect to Slinkerwink, it's not Senator Lieberman whom your anger should be directed towards here. It's the person where the buck ultimately stops who allegedly told our Senate leaders to cut a deal with that slimebag and has allowed this entire Senate bill to fall to crap in the first place.