I'm as angry as the next progressive that Lieberman is helping to torpedo any progressive elements of the health care bill.
But he is not the real problem, and the focus on him (including massive fundraising drives) is distracting activists from the real problem: President Obama's failure to fight for true health care reform.
More discussion and analysis after the fold.
Droopy Dog Lieberman (I absolute love Jon Stewart's impression of him, BTW. It's one of the few impressions that Jon consistently nails.) is getting away with his undemocratic and un-Democractic actions because President Obama is allowing it to happen.
Do you really think the President has no leverage over ol' Joementum? He couldn't threaten to support the caucus if it took away his chairmanship, or even expelled him? He couldn't threaten to discourage all his financial backers from continuing to support him? (I realize that the President probably can't completely cut off Joe's funding, but I'm sure he could put a sizeable dent in it. As the wingnuts love to remind us, this is a President who understands Chicago-style politics.)
Yet, Lieberman said recently that no Dem has even asked him to consider losing his chairmanship. Wow, Mr. President, way to play hardball! I guess you're right and there's nothing we can do but give the Senator from Aetna his way.
On Countdown yesterday, Howard Dean said the following:
"Joe loves the attention, and just to make Joe the issue, I think, is a mistake."
I agree, and think that we need to keep our eye on the President. He's the only one who can salvage health care reform now.
And even if we didn't think Joe was a distraction, we have absolutely no strategy or ability to change his vote. He hates the progressive base of the party with a passion after 06, and so telling him what we want actually encourages him to do the opposite. He has clearly designed his re-election strategy around running as a ConservaDem if not actually switching parties and running as a Republican. Nothing we do is going to change that. And all the money spent on trying to convince is money wasted that could have been spent trying to pressure the President.
I'm not an Obama hater. This isn't about whether I like him or not. Politics should never be about that. It's about getting help to the millions and millions of struggling Americans who are going bankrupt or dying every day because of our screwed up health care system. If the President helps us to do that, I will applaud him. And if I think that he is opposing efforts to do that, then I will condemn him.
Joementum's 15 minutes are up. Time for us to focus once again on what really matters. Let's get to work.