We should not forget this crucial point.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
We can be pissed at Joe Lieberman - and rightly so - until the cows come home, but at the end of the day, he alone can't block anything in the Senate, and we do the truth a disservice by pretending that he can. The only reason Joe Lieberman can filibuster health care reform, and thereby get whatever the hell he wants out of the bill, is because he has 40 Republican Senators who have his back.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
Whenever you get so pissed at Holy Joe that you can't think straight, repeat this to yourself like a mantra and remember who your real enemy is.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
Joe Lieberman is only effective in blocking things in the Senate because we know that the 40 Republican Senators are going to put absolutely nothing - not the good of the country, not the good of the people, not the will of the majority, not the comity of the Senate, not the intentions of the Framers - ahead of their simple, visceral, absolute desire to destroy this President and cripple this administration.
For that reason, banish this phrase from your vocabulary: "Joe Lieberman is filibustering health care reform." He isn't. Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform. What Joe Lieberman can do is join a Republican filibuster. But that doesn't make it Joe's Filibuster. Let's place the blame right where it belongs - not Joe Lieberman alone, but the 40 Republicans who won't even let health care reform come to a vote.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
Let us never lose sight of this point: For at least the next three years and change - and probably four more after that - Republicans are rooting against America. They're rooting against our economy, they're rooting against our military, they're rooting against our culture, they're rooting against our happiness - because they want President Obama to fail more than they want this country to succeed. And they'll do everything in their power to hurt this country until one of theirs is back in the Oval Office.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
When Chicago didn't get the Olympics - which would have brought billions of dollars, tens of thousands of jobs, and national honor and pride to a nation and a city that could sure use them right now - the Republicans cheered, because they thought it was a blow against President Obama.
When unemployment goes up, a sign that more Americans are out of work and struggling to make it to next week, next month, next year - the Republicans cheer, because they think it's a sign that President Obama's economy is weak.
When deficits go up, the legacy of Bushonomics where we're selling our country piece-by-piece to the Chinese - the Republicans cheer, because it's they think it's a sign that President Obama's budget doesn't work.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
No American who loves his or her country would cheer that a great American city like Chicago didn't get the Olympics. No American who loves his or her country would be happy that more Americans are looking for work and struggling to get by. No American who loves his or her country would celebrate bigger budget deficits.
The Republicans have put their party's ideology - or their party identification - ahead of the most basic moral requirement for public office, love of country. They want President Obama's America to fail.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
Let's not forget who's really standing in the way of our agenda here. It isn't a little droopy-jowled gray-haired man from Connecticut - it's the 40 Republican Senators he's got lined up behind him.
It's the 40 Republican Senators who know in their hearts that we need health care reform, that health care reform will make their fellow citizens' lives better, that health care reform will be successful and popular. But their desire to see President Obama fail outweighs their desire to see their country succeed.
Joe Lieberman can't filibuster health care reform alone.
Get mad. Get really mad. But don't just get mad at Joe Lieberman.
Get mad at Richard Burr. Get mad at Roy Blunt. Get mad at Chuck Grassley. Get mad at retiring Republicans like Judd Gregg, Jim Bunning, George Voinovich, and George LeMieux.
Let's not let our circular firing squad distract us from the true enemy - not Joe Lieberman, but the 40 men and women standing behind him putting party ahead of country. The more of them we replace with Democrats next year, the less Joe Lieberman matters.