I suspect if PhRMA were 100% confident Joe Lieberman could successfully remove the public option and still ensure the rest of the bill would pass intact, they would be supporting his efforts. The fact that PhRMA is asking Lieberman not to fight indicates to me that they actually fear the possibility that the progressive block might kill the current bill because if it lacks a public option.
Chuck Todd and David Gregory are too busy to Google -- or remember anything older than last night.
As Joe Conason notes, Hadassah Lieberman is employed by the Susan B. Komen "Race for the Cure" organization, which needs to explain why the man blocking health care reform is
repeatedly invited to their events. Ostensibly, they are calling for the changes he is trying to prevent. Are they about raising money, or are they about...you know, health care?
Ask them.
He's with them on everything except what they were elected for.
Joe LIEberman (Insurance-CON) went on Fox News Sunday this morning and in addition to
promising to block the public option, he announced that he was finally planning to hold hearings in the Homeland Security Committee. Recall that LIEberman steadfastly
refused to hold oversight hearings on the Bush failures in Katrina, but was still allowed to continue chairing the committee even after campaigning for John McCain (Old-GetOffMyYard) in the 2008 presidential election. What will be the topic for the hearings? Nothing other than a big round of "booga booga there's Mooslums in the military!"
Senator Unprincipled Opportunist manages to flip flop on health reform, lie about his concern over the national debt and threated to kill health care reform, while Fox' Chris Wallace never blinked an eye.
James Inhofe (R-OK) appeared briefly today at a climate bill markup in the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, simply to drop off a letter with a series of Republican demands on how to move forward on the bill. The letter basically asks the EPA for a "full assessment" of the Senate bill, including modeling that they are probably not even equipped to do. It's just a stall tactic, and Democrats treated it as such: "Thanks for stopping by," Boxer told Inhofe.
Liberals turned Joe Lieberman into an unprincipled opportunist.