Lieberman said he wasn’t sure which party, if any, he would represent in his next election.
“I like being an independent, so that’s definitely a possibility,” the Connecticut senator said. “But I’d say all options are open.”
He called running as a Republican “unlikely” but added that he wouldn’t “foreclose any possibility.”
“I’ve reached the stage in my career where I’m not measuring every step I take based on how it’s going to affect the next election,” Lieberman said. “I think if you do that, you end up compromising the quality of your service.”
I would posit that there’s a difference between basing your decisions on what will get you re-elected and doing the exact opposite of what the people who elected you want, but hey, what do I know?
Time for a Public Option: Aetna Chooses Profits Over People
If only someone in Washington were proposing a healthcare reform proposal that could prevent things like this:
Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.
In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. The insurance giant predicted that the company would subsequently lose between 300,000 and 350,000 members next year from its national account as well as another 300,000 from smaller group accounts.
…
Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.
In other words, Aetna is going to dump 600,000 customers because they… made money. Just not as much money as they’d like to make. Anyone who needed more evidence for why Americans need a health insurance option that isn’t tied to corporations’ bottom lines, here it is.
Utahns do not care so much for their Sen. Bob Bennett. But more importantly, so that’s how you spell “Utahns.” (Deseret News)
Chris Matthews has apologized for saying that Barack Obama, the commander-in-chief of America’s military was in the “enemy camp” when he spoke at West Point, one of America’s military installations. (Media Matters)
Most Americans want a public option but are fairly certain that Congress will not pass effective healthcare reform. Looks like we are getting smarter, as a nation. (Reuters)
Your American news media caused actual diplomatic emergencies because they are too incompetent to accurately cover Obama’s Afghanistan policy. But, ooh look! Tiger Woods! (LA Times)
The Mall of America apologizes for being caught trying to ban foreign reporters from covering Sarah Palin’s book tour stop at the mall. Little do they know that Sarah Palin does not speak to reporters, so no problem anyway! (AP)
I probably already know the answer to this question, but is anyone in our news media (other than terrible liberal bloggers, of course) going to call out Joe Lieberman for his unambiguously false lie that Barack Obama never mentioned a public option when he ran for president?
Then again, you can’t really blame Lieberman for not knowing where the Democratic candidate for president stood on anything since he was John McCain’s almost-running mate.
How Much Will Wingnuts Pay for the Privilege of Sarah Palin Running for President?
For the low, low price of $100,000, Sarah Palin will come to Iowa to run for President. But only once the check clears. (Politico)
Nancy Pelosi and the House of Representatives are jumping on Harry Reid’s announce-a-healthcare-reform-bill bandwagon, with their own healthcare reform bill. (House Committee on Education and Labor)
Speaking of which, the insurance industry is not a fan of this healthcare bill, which would allow Americans to get health insurance from somewhere that is not the insurance industry. (TPMDC)
Chris Christie is a fatty-fat fatty! It’s okay, he wants people to talk about this instead of talking about the time he maybe ran some guy over in his car. (CNN Political Ticker)
Oh look, your economy is getting better now, thanks to cash-for-clunkers and some other things that were totally Socialism until they started working. (NYT)
If it walks like a Republican and talks like a Republican, then Republicans are going to use it to their benefit:
“Senator Lieberman should be commended today for sticking with his principles and standing against efforts by Democrat leaders in Washington to ram through a controversial and massive government health care bill,” says NRSC spokesman Colin Reed in a statement aimed at Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)–a liberal in a red state who has shown no sign of bucking the public option, but faces a (somewhat remote) re-election threat if Gov. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) runs next year. “The question many in Washington and in North Dakota are waiting to have answered, however, is where do Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad stand? Will they stand with Harry Reid and his partisan government-run health care bill or will they stand with North Dakota taxpayers who are already facing an unimaginable federal debt? Both Senators have had more than enough time to study this issue and understand its consequences on North Dakota taxpayers – it’s time they made their position clear as Senator Lieberman did today.”
The NRSC is sending more or less the same statement to reporters in Louisiana, Nebraska, Florida, and Indiana.
First of all, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman is my friend, and he is a good Democrat, votes with us on everything, except the war. So Joe Lieberman is easy to work with.
And here’s a little trip down memory lane to the immediate aftermath of the election, courtesy of Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN):
Joe [Lieberman] did say some things. Not his support of John McCain. I think everybody understands that supporting your friend is perfectly legitimate. He said some things that perhaps crossed the line in terms of questioning Senator Obama’s, you know, patriotism or things like that.
And I think if Joe came before the caucus and said look, if I said some things that came as offensive, I’m sorry, but… they were — you know heartfelt in my support of John McCain. I think we had to just let bygones be bygones. We’re going to need him on healthcare and energy independence and education and a whole lot of other things.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill.
Campaigning for the Republican candidate for president. Questioning the patriotism of the future Democratic President of the United States. Voting to let the GOP obstruct Democratic plans for healthcare reform. And for this he gets spot in the Democratic leadership of the Senate!
What else does this guy have to do to get himself kicked out of the Democratic caucus and stripped of his committee chairmanship? The old “we need his 60th vote to prevent a filibuster” excuse obviously no longer applies.
Some of the RNC’s Facebook friends are terribly racist and do not care for our mixed-race president. (Raw Story)
President Obama has more women in his Cabinet than any previous president. But does he invite them over for basketball enough? That is the real important question. (ABC News)
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) took his daughter to a public clinic to get the terrible socialist swine flu vaccine that he voted not to fund. What will Glenn Beck say? (Roll Call via Daily Kos)
President Olympia Snowe will not support any kind of public option, so Harry Reid will probably just take it out of the healthcare bill because all bills must have one Republican vote to pass. It’s in the Constitution! (TPMDC)
All this worrying about healthcare and the economy has made Americans want to get high now more than ever before. (Gallup)
The health insurance industry would really like for healthcare reform to not happen at all. Shocking! (Huffington Post)
It’s hard to be from South Carolina when everyone is mocking your dumb state. (Los Angeles Times)
Americans are afraid of getting swine flu but still don’t want the vaccine because of… socialism? Or something. (Washington Post)
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