As if he is begging to be thrown out of the Democratic Party and to be soundly defeated when he runs for re-election in 2012, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) made the outrageous announcement this week that he will back a Republican filibuster of Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health-care reform bill.
In light of Lieberman’s recent history of being unfaithful to Democrats and so clearly out for only his own political gain, it is perhaps not surprising to see him jumping on the rhetorical bandwagon of the GOP. But this decision, to go against the wishes of the majority of his constituents and almost everyone in the party with which he caucuses, is unforgivable.
Perhaps Lieberman owes some political favors to his Republican colleagues for not running an electable candidate against him in 2006. Or maybe he simply has decided that he is a member of the GOP. If so, he should be dropped from the Democratic caucus. No one needs a traitor in the camp — especially one as two-faced and disingenuous as Lieberman.
As a Connecticut attorney general and in his early years as a senator, Lieberman painted himself as a supporter of “the little guy,� fighting for civil rights and against job discrimination. In more recent years, he has become a hawkish war monger who endorsed the presidential candidate from the opposing party in 2008.
Lieberman said this week that he’ll oppose a public health-insurance option because it “creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line.� What he fails to mention is the fact that Americans are already on the line, supporting health-insurance companies whose prices have gotten out of control.
If Lieberman wants to support the little guy, he should use his vote in a positive way by allowing a health-care reform bill to reach a vote on the Senate floor. If he wants to support big business, lobbyists and health-insurance companies, he should cease caucusing with the Democrats and leave the party for good. In turn, Connecticut residents should dump him in 2012.
