The NY Times Calls out Joe LIEberman...

[madinmaryland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/opinion/16wed4.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

First, Senator Joseph Lieberman — the former Democrat, current independent from Connecticut — rejected the so-called public health care option. Then he threatened to torpedo the entire health care reform bill if it allowed people over 55 to buy Medicare plans.

The aim of that idea, like the public option, is to provide more choice for consumers and more competition for the private insurance industry. And that industry, you will not be surprised to hear, has been very, very good to Mr. Lieberman.

What makes it all the more hypocritical is that Mr. Lieberman claims to want health care reform. And way back in September, the senator was publicly championing a Medicare buy-in.

In an interview with The Connecticut Post, he said he had been refining his views on health care for many years and was “very focused on a group post-50, or maybe more like post-55” whose members should be able to buy Medicare if they lacked insurance.

This week, when there actually seemed to be a compromise on health care that did not focus on Mr. Lieberman, he announced that he would block the package if the Democrats included a terrible idea — allowing people between 55 and 65 to buy Medicare.

He presented this as a principled effort to keep down federal debt, but when a Times reporter asked about his 180-degree turn, he said he had forgotten taking his earlier position until the Democratic leadership reminded him about it over the weekend.

Mr. Lieberman has taken more than $1 million from the industry over his Senate career. In his 2006 re-election campaign, he ranked second in the Senate in contributions from the industry. He doesn’t seem to have forgotten that.

Not that it will do any good. :mad:

[Mari333]

1. This was a set up

last night there was a whistleblower from the Health Ins companies on the Ed show, and he said as much.
Lieberman is the shill now, the final nail in the coffin and has been working towards this moment all along.
I wonder if the whole thing was planned all along to end up like this. They all knew the outcome and the people be damned.

[pissedoff01]

2. The scam was preplanned

well run by the insurance terrorists and their whores

[madinmaryland]

5. Welcome to DU!

[jberryhill]

3. "he said he had forgotten taking his earlier position"

Asshole.

[madinmaryland]

4. He also said "He presented this as a principled effort"

LIEberman has no principles except to the Insurance and Defense contractor cartels.

[AspenRose]

7. Politicians who 'forget' their positions so easily shouldn't be in office.

They're clearly incompetent.

[L0oniX]

9. Feeble bastard. n/t

[blm]

10. If it HAD been a 'principled effort' he wouldn't have forgotten it.

.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Interesting: "Still... the Senate must pass this vital measure."

The editors don't say why.

[Mari333]

8. so they can get it done by Xmas, and hand it to us

a stinking package of shit, covered up in wrapping paper with a big bow on it and say they passed health care reform

when all they did was actually hand us a stinking package of shit with a bow on it.

and they expect us to eat the shit, too!

and call it cookies.

boy, are they in for a surprise.