Somebody Buy Joe Lieberman a Puppy
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- atomiclegion
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more from News:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/10/somebody-buy-joe-lieberman-pup...
What Joe Lieberman wants, in all probability, is attention.The reason this is a little scary for Democrats is because the usual things that serve to motivate a Congressman don't seem to motivate Joe Lieberman.
Would voting to filibuster the Democrats' health care bill (if it contains a decent public option) endear Lieberman to his constituents? No; Connecticutians favor the public option 64-31.
Would it make his path to re-election easier? No, because it would virtually assure that Lieberman faces a vigorous and well-funded challenge from a credible, capital-D Democrat, and polls show him losing such a match-up badly.
Would it buy him more power in the Senate? No, because Democrats would have every reason to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.
Is Lieberman's stance intended to placate the special interests in his state? Perhaps this is part of it -- there are a lot of insurance companies in Connecticut -- but Lieberman is generally not one of the more sold-out Senators, ranking 75th out of the 100-member chamber in the percentage of his fundraising that comes from corporate PACs.
Are there any particular compromises or concessions he wants in the bill? He hasn't stipulated any, at least not publicly.
Might he have a legitimate policy objection to the public option? Certainly there are some legitimate objections -- whether or not you agree with them. But Lieberman's objections don't make any sense. He says he's worried about blunting "the economic recovery we’re in" even though the public option provisions wouldn't kick in until 2013. He says he's worried about debt-reduction when the public option would make the bill more deficit-neutral. And he campaigned on a public-option type alternative called "MediChoice" in 2006.
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carmalite
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Joe Lieberman is owned lock stock and barrel by the insurance companies. He is a rotten apple.
- 4 months ago
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carmalite
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Wessagusset_Oracle
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this money hungry scumbag! he's a sellout to the citizens of the USA, why do we let our officials represent corporations and $ instead of us, treason!
mail/call his office!!!
- 4 months ago
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Wessagusset_Oracle
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nodonjuan
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Old Joe would either beat the puppy or worry about spending money on dog food so, it would starve.
- 4 months ago
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nodonjuan
