Considering the
GOP is lying to try to get us to compromise, the question is, "Will Lieberman sell out?"
BLITZER: All right, so let's get to some specifics. Give us some of your specifics. How would you fix Social Security?
LIEBERMAN: Here's where I am -- and I'm involved in a lot of discussions, bipartisan discussions. Olympia Snowe and I head the centrist Bipartisan Coalition. Lindsay Graham and I have been working. I've talked to Bob Bennett. I got some very interesting ideas, fellow senator from Utah. Clay Shaw is a congressman from Florida.
And I want to pull from all of these the possibility of common ground to fix the Social Security problem, and in that we can't take any of these ideas off the table.
No, exactly that is 100% wrong. Stop playing checkers and start playing chess. Atrios explains:
The Democrats need to be very careful about expressing willingness to cut a deal with Bush on Social Security as long as privatization is off the table. There's no need to do anything about Social Security in the near term, and setting up the an air of inevitability regarding "something sort of social seucrity reform will pass this year" will create pressure for them to rubber stamp whatever nonsense comes out of DeLay's conference committee, or they'll find themselves having to object to it in ways which are a net negative, politically. I know useful idiots like Joe Klein and the rest of the analstocracy demand that they make concilliatory and compromising noises, but those people should all be ignored. Or, preferably, locked away.
Joshua Micah Marshall has more.
Matthew Yglesias has more.
Kos has more.
Eschaton has previously covered the subject.
Ironically, the same day Lieberman is talking about selling out the Democrats, the LA Times has a story on the Republicans:
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's proposal to overhaul Social Security is falling flat across the country, to judge from recent polls, but public opinion is not his only problem. The whole idea splits Bush's party -- along fault lines he masterfully bridged during his first term in the White House.
A Social Security overhaul is the Holy Grail for the GOP's free-market advocates, but it is a low priority for social conservatives who care more about banning abortion and same-sex marriage.
The costly initiative gives heartburn to the party's antideficit hawks. Even some of the Republicans' loyal business allies are lukewarm on Bush's effort to rewrite the program and allow workers to divert part of their Social Security payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts.
The divisions highlight potential weaknesses in the GOP coalition that Bush hopes to turn into an enduring governing majority by the time he leaves the White House.
On Capitol Hill, the open disagreement among Republicans over the issue -- and over the political strategy for dealing with it -- is a departure from the unity and discipline they showed on most major issues during Bush's first term.
This is the best thing to happen to the Democratic Party in years, but Lieberman still believes in working with the White House.
We tried a call-in day, any ideas on how to escalate?
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