Howard Dean (and the left) turn on the Senate’s health plan

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This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.
Former DNC chair Howard Dean • Saying that the Senate bill isn’t worth saving in its current form. Why’s that? Blame some guy named Joe Lieberman. Why does Joe Lieberman Howard Dean hate America? Actually, he’s not alone. DailyKos founder Markos Moulitas also says it should die in its current form. As do a few other prominent liberal voices. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Dec 2009 11:16

Since, really, 2006, Lieberman has felt alienated from his caucus, and he’s grown more conservative. He does not care about liberals, who tried to drum him out of office in 2006; he seems to enjoy poking them in the eye.
Atlantic political writer Marc Ambinder • Describing the nature of Joe Lieberman’s recent attacks on the health care bill. Ultimately, he’s still smarting from his near-loss in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race, so he appears to be playing this as his comeuppance. Ambinder suggests that the ultimate 60th vote of this will not be Lieberman – who appears to be trying to stonewall this, privately giving a thumbs-up while publicly trashing it – but Olympia Snowe, who will require less work to win over. Perhaps once everyone realizes that, this will get easier. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

He’s stalling the Medicare compromise. So it goes away, too. Thanks to Joe Lieberman, the health care bill’s great compromise – which would’ve dropped the minimum age for Medicare to 55 – is now dead in the water. With the nonprofit option still on the table, all hope isn’t lost for improving health care. But it’s not going to be public in any way, shape or form. Thanks, Joe. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

We are asking Ellen DeGeneres, Christie Brinkley and other high-profile celebrities who are associated with Komen to demand that no more money raised for cancer treatment be given to Hadassah Lieberman or any other ex-Pharma/Insurance strategists.
Firedoglake blog founder Jane Hamsher • On her group’s push to convince the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to drop Hadassah Lieberman as a spokesperson. (The push has celebrity support, by the way.) Lieberman, whose husband Joe is the 60th vote on health care and appears to be stonewalling the effort, has been a consultant for companies such as Pfizer and ALCO – companies, ironically, that might not benefit from the passage of a health care bill. source