Bloggers are trying to figure out why Senator Joseph Lieberman, independent from Connecticut, announced yesterday that he would filibuster any bill containing a public option.
Slate’s Timothy Noah asks if “Lieberman just killed the public option?” Noah thinks Lieberman’s motives lie with the clout of insurance companies in his state (approximately 64,000 emploees). He concludes, “If I’m right that Lieberman is determined to line up behind the insurance industry, then there’s no hope he will ever support any version of the public option, even on a procedural cloture vote, because there’s no hope insurers will support a public option. And if health insurers decide in the end to oppose health reform without a public option, Lieberman will oppose that, too.”
The American Spectator’s Philip Klein quips, “Momentum for Government Plan Stopped by Joe-Mentum.”
Nate Silve of FiveThirtyEight.com says what Lieberman “wants, in all probability, is attention.” Or maybe a puppy.
Hot Air’s Allah Pundit says, “I’ve got a crazy hunch that he media’s strange new respect for free-thinkin’ independent-minded centrists like Snowe and Susan Collins won’t be extended to Joe Liebs,” and offers an ‘exit question’: “Is it a bluff?”
The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn doesn’t seem surprised by these developments: “I’ve been thinking for a couple weeks that Joe Lieberman is the Democrats’ biggest potential problem. The rest of the party has a strong incentive to pass health care reform and avoid a 2010 catastrophe. But Lieberman? He’s not a Democrat and won’t be running on the Democratic ticket in 2012. Moreover, my read on him is that he’s furious with the party, resentful of President Obama (who beat his friend in 2008) and would relish a Democratic catastrophe.”
Heritage’s Conn Carroll says Lieberman’s critique is “dead on.” He announces, “Americans who like making their own health care choices received welcome news yesterday when Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said he would be willing to block final passage of Obamacare if the government run health insurance program Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Monday survives the amendment process during the Senate debate.”
But the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein takes a different tack: “I don’t know why I don’t take Joe Lieberman’s threat to filibuster health-care reform more seriously, but I just don’t.” Klein thinks Lieberman’s objections to the bill will likely be settled by a CBO score.
Tags: lieberman, public plan, reid
