I hate Joseph Lieberman. However, this isn’t about him. Not really. Sure, I hope a meteorite crashes through the roof of his BMW and kills him stone dead, but this isn’t about him.
It’s not about his position on HCR. It’s not about the fact that he makes most DINOs look like bomb-throwing anarchists. Nope.
This is about the people who deal with him on a daily basis. People that can produce a quote like this:
I mean, really, how can these people function with their heads so far up their asses? Closed circuit television?
Wow, Tailgunner Joe pulled the same kind of shit he’s been pulling for years and you’re still “stunned”? I swear to fucking Christ, it makes Charlie Brown and the Football look suspenseful.
I used to defend Lieberman, since I thought he was a pretty middle of the road Dem who just ended up holding the bag for hawkish stance on Iraq he shared with a lot of other party members. But it’s pretty hard to see his current stance as anything but trying to presue a personal vendetta against the parts of the party he feels wronged him at the expense of the party as a whole on the country in general.
While I disagree with Nelson, Lincoln and the other conservative Dems that have made passing Healthcare difficult, I think their reasons for doing so are fairly rational, and they’re willing to hash out a compromise to produce a bill that will be decent, if not the best possible. They got togeather with the liberal members of the Senate, sat down, and hashed out a workable compromise.
Lieberman skipped those meetings, voiced tentative support for the compromise that was produced in them, waited until Reid had sent it to the CBO, and then decided to pull the rug out by coming out against the plan.
Given our recent failure to reach consensus on a definition of irony in the “gun-totin’ momma shot dead by husband” thread, I’m loathe to address “Jew killed by falling nickel”…
The guy stands up for his principles. This is a guy who walks several miles to the Capitol to cast votes on Saturday, since it’s his sabbath and he’s not allowed to drive, as an Orthodox Jew.
Whether you agree or disagree with him on this stance, it’s tough not to respect him.
I remember their names on the ballot right next to their running mates’.
Anyway, you should know by now not to take anything he says at face value. Joe needs the cash the Hartford-based insurance industry is giving him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t bluffing. Remember, his other need is to feel important and to be catered to.
I’m not Jewish, but isn’t the casting of a vote work, which is forbidden on the Sabbath? Sounds like his principles are somewhat flexible – not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.
Is there any actual basis for the claim that Lieberman initially supported the compromise? His spokesman strongly denied it.
He could be lying of course, but it’s also possible that these anonymous Senate people misunderstood, or possibly deliberately said what they knew to be untrue in an effort to make it harder for Lieberman to oppose them.
No. Work that’s forbidden on the Sabbath is “work,” in the sense of doing a job. Carrying things, making fire, washing, cooking… all these are forbidden. But unless it involved writing something, I would think voting would be permissible. (Even the writing, if it happens, is probably not done by the voting Senator but by a clerk tabulating the results; the clerk would be a sort of Shabbos goy, a non-Jew hired to perform acts that observant Jews cannot do on the Sabbath.)
Apparently activist groups are now trying to pay Joe back for his insufficiently groupthink behavior by kicking his wife off the breast cancer charity she supports. Nice.
I believe the Knesset is closed along with all other government functions on the Sabbath, so I’d have a hard time believing that legislating is okay for an observant Jew.
Lieberman and Cheney voted for Lieberman and Cheney. Their immediate families knew better and voted for Gore and Bush.
I was dismayed when Gore chose him as his running mate. Lieberman’s behavior since then has only confirmed and strengthened my disgust. However, in talking to my conservative friends and relatives, and my far right friends and relatives, I find disgust with Lieberman is truly a bipartisan activity. And don’t get my Jewish friends and relatives started on Holy Joe. They hate the guy.