Why Is Lieberman 'stubborn' about opposing a public option? Because he's 'bitter'

[BurtWorm]

Says Peter Bienart on The Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-23/what-made-joe-bitter/

...

But Lieberman was the most prominent iconoclast, at least up until now. For close to a decade, he got nearly perfect scores from the American Public Health Association, which backs a single-payer health-care system, and in lieu of that, the “public option.” Now, all of a sudden, he’s so outraged by a public option that he’s threatening to filibuster any bill that contains it. The arguments he makes on behalf of his new position are remarkably weak: He says the public option will raise costs, even though the Congressional Budget Office has said no such thing, and even though logic suggests that by competing with private insurers, a government plan will actually drive costs down. Some have accused Lieberman of shifting right in order to win backing from the insurance industry in preparation for a 2012 reelection run. But, in fact, he gets relatively little insurance money, and Connecticut politicos mostly think he won’t run.

So why is he doing this? Because he’s bitter. According to former staffers and associates, he was upset by his dismal showing in the 2004 Democratic presidential primary. And he was enraged by the tepid support he got from many party leaders in 2006, when he lost the Democratic primary to an anti-war activist and won reelection as an independent. Gradually, this personal alienation has eaten away at his liberal domestic views. His staff has grown markedly more conservative in recent years, and his closest friends in Congress are now Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham. For Lieberman, the personal has become political, and it has pushed him further to the right.

...

[Andy823]

1. Well...

As far as I am concerned, he "IS" a republican, and if the party can't trust him to vote with them on important issues like health care, then maybe it's time to take away his chairmanship position and stop catering to him when he won't stand up for something as important as health care reform! I am sure his pockets are lined with money from the health care industry, and since he wants to be an ass, I say give him the boot!

[OHdem10]

2. More than once on Fox he has called the Social Safety Net of

FDR-- those old New Deal Programs. Perhaps over the years
his philosophy changed. If so, he sees health care as another
government program he does not like.

[polichick]

3. Can't wait for the people of his state to toss his bitter ass out of office! nt

[vi5]

4. You know what? He's entitled to that...

He wants to be bitter...fine.
He wants to obstruct a democratic agenda...fine.

Heck knows that's exactly what he's doing.

What's not fine is for him to keep his chairmanships and his seniority on committees. He wants to act like and vote like a republican he's entitled to that. But then he doesn't get the perks of being part of the Dem caucus if he's not going to follow through.

Of course expecting Reid to actually take action and do what need sto be done is as much a lost cause as expecting Leiberman to do the correct thing.

[louis-t]

5. Because his wife site on Boards of Directors of

3 insurance companies?

[truebrit71]

6. DING! DING! DING!

We have a WINNNER folks!!!

[Salviati]

7. I don't know which one makes me think less of him...

He's opposing it because he's a corrupt SOB, or he's opposing it because he's a whiney crybaby. Either way, I'm still going to be giving his droopy-dog looking mug the finger every time I see it on the TV.