Yeah, yeah - tell me something I don't already know, right? I'm sorry but I have to get this off my chest because this man - more than Giuliani, Beck, Limbaugh and Liasson (that's right Mara, I went there) combined - is really, really starting to piss me off.
Last evening, Melissa Block had Lieberman on to talk about his bogus Homeland Security committee hearings on Nidal Hasan and the Fort Hood shootings, which - you'll recall - Lieberman is quite convinced was a terrorist act. After suffering through that, Block asked Lieberman about HCR - specifically, his prior statements about voting against cloture. This is what he said (below the fold, please):
So people say to me, "would you really vote against cloture to bring this health care reform bill to passage" and I say, I hope and pray that it doesn't come to that but then I ask, really from my side, would the advocates of the public option really stop us from doing the kind of things I want to do? Source
I want to do?!?! Over 40,000 people die each year due to a lack of health insurance and you're joining a republican filibuster because you can't do what YOU WANT TO DO?! F*ck you and the droopy-ass-dog you rode in on, Joe.
Lieberman, as usual, is chock full of shit. As Jonathan Alter points out:
Flashback: when he ran for reelection in 2006, Lieberman bragged about his MediChoice plan. It would "allow anybody in our country to buy into a national health-insurance pool like the federal-insurance pool we federal employees and members of Congress have." That sounds suspiciously like—ahem—the public option. What's changed?
According to his latest statements, what has changed is his concern about the deficit...but wait, didn't the CBO just say that:
The bill comes in at $849 billion over the next ten years, and is projected to cut the budget deficit by $127 billion over 10 years and by $650 billion in the second decade; it will extend guaranteed coverage to more than 94% of Americans -- including a 31 million person reduction in the uninsured.
Joe, if you're going to try to look principled at least be consistent:
Does that keep Lieberman from being gung-ho about escalation [in Afghanistan]? No. Like other neocons, he thinks the deeper principle at stake trumps short-term cost calculations that are probably wrong anyway. But when it comes to health care, restraining hypothetical spending is suddenly a matter of conscience. Spare me. For Lieberman the only principle at stake is his stake in looking principled.
Alter really takes the junior douchebag Senator from Connecticut to the woodshed on this one - it's worth the read if you have time.
Senator Lieberman - this is for you.
I would like to direct this to the distinguished junior senator from Connecticut. You lousy corksucker. You have violated my farging rights. This son-a-ma-batching country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens - like me - would not be taken away by a farging icehole...like yourself.
Thank you