12/14: Lieberman Yanks Away The Football

Just when you thought Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) couldn't possibly anger liberal bloggers more than he has already, he went and announced his opposition to the latest health care reform compromise. Lefty bloggers are irate. Ezra Klein declares that Lieberman "appears driven more by a pathological dislike of the liberals who dogged him in 2006 than by any remotely rational policy judgment." Other liberal bloggers are calling Lieberman "a sanctimonious, petty, vindictive egomaniac" who is "pledged to his own grievance and insatiable need to settle scores". Even the mild-mannered Josh Marshall observes that Lieberman "just doesn't seem to be negotiating in good faith."

Many lefty bloggers have become convinced that Lieberman will never accept a health care compromise that liberals can support. Joan McCarter predicts: "Lieberman is just going to keep moving goalposts -- he will not agree to a compromise on any bill that will satisfy liberals -- the majority of his caucus." Consequently, lefty bloggers are urging Senate Dems to give up on trying to get 60 votes and instead use the budget reconciliation process to pass the more controversial aspects of health care reform.

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (desmoinesdem, Benen, Madrak, Yglesias) are pleased that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) is thinking about reintroducing his '95 bill that would abolish the filibuster.
• Matt Taibbi's scathing attack on Obama's economic team is generating a lot of commentary in the lefty blogosphere, with some criticizing it (Yglesias, Fernholz, Klein) but most praising it (Drum, Armstrong, Cole, digby, Brad).

LIEBERMAN: It Was Lieberman All Along

Liberal bloggers are accusing Lieberman of obstructing health care reform out of spite rather than principle:

• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "After Barack Obama saved his butt -- and his chairmanship, Lieberman is trying to destroy Obama's top agenda item. Classy guy. And, what's clear is that there is no real policy reason for Lieberman's actions. It's spite. He's doing it because he can. Oh well. They can't say they weren't warned."
• digby: "When [Senate Maj. Leader Harry] Reid said 'Joe Lieberman is the least of my problems' he was waving a red flag in his face. It's all about him. And he will not be ignored. And he will not vote for anything that liberals want, period. I don't know why they thought it would be any different. He's a sanctimonious, petty, vindictive egomaniac. But then, he always has been. [...] If Obama and Reid actually formed their strategy around the idea that 'Lieberman will come around,' if the bill fails it's their fault."
• TPM's Marshall: "Lieberman just doesn't seem to be negotiating in good faith. He keeps pulling his caucus to some new compromise, waiting a few days and then saying he can't agree to that either. It's coming to a breaking point."
• The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates: "Lieberman, once celebrated as an iconoclast, is now (regarding health care) an ideologue of the worst order -- one pledged to his own grievance and insatiable need to settle scores."
• The Washington Post's Klein: "To put this in context, Lieberman was invited to participate in the process that led to the Medicare buy-in. His opposition would have killed it before liberals invested in the idea. Instead, he skipped the meetings and is forcing liberals to give up yet another compromise. Each time he does that, he increases the chances of the bill's failure that much more. And if there's a policy rationale here, it's not apparent to me, or to others who've interviewed him. At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals. That is to say, he seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score."

Balloon Juice's John Cole quips: "Now that Lieberman clinched the Monday morning headlines and will get the most attention on Morning Joe, what will drama queens John McCain and Ben Nelson do to get back in the news?"

Meanwhile, several liberal bloggers (Coates, Drum) are criticizing Reid for telling reporters back in October: "Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid's problems."

LIEBERMAN II: Seriously, People, It's Time For Reconciliation

Many liberal bloggers are arguing that Lieberman and Nelson will never support health care reform and that Senate Dems should instead use the budget reconciliation process:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "Lieberman is just going to keep moving goalposts -- he will not agree to a compromise on any bill that will satisfy liberals -- the majority of his caucus. And by doing so, he gives cover to Ben Nelson (still resisting an abortion solution), [LA Sen. Mary] Landrieu, and [AR Sen. Blanche] Lincoln to continue to whittle the bill down to meaninglessness, or worse."
• Think progress' Matthew Yglesias: "I agree with Chris Bowers that in a lot of ways the real story here is that the Senate leadership has, at every step of this process, underscored that a 'reconciliation' path to a health care bill is off the table. That means Lieberman has unlimited control over what happens, and no incentive to compromise, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's being uncompromising. [...] If reconciliation could be revived, things might look different. There's a good case for not doing this legislation through reconciliation. The product that emerged from the parliamentarian's wringer could be sub-optimal in various ways. But the product that emerges from Lieberman's wringer will also be sub-optimal. So given a viable threat of reconciliation, it seems to me that both sides would have some incentive to compromise."
• Firedoglake's Scarecrow: "The only thing preventing the enactment of the bill is the Democratic leadership's unwillingness to use procedures on the democratic and Constitutional principles of majority rule. And refusing to use those principles means that unprincipled opportunists like Joe Lieberman have veto power over any bill to reform our inhumane health care system. [...] And make no mistake: if the issue wasn't the public option, or the Medicare buy-in, these unprincipled opportunists would find some other excuse to be the scoundrels they are. This is not about specific features of health reform; it's all about them."
• BooMan: "If Joe Lieberman won't vote for a reasonable health care bill, it really makes more sense to just use the budget reconciliation process, even though that will mean that we can't move on to other things like jobs and climate legislation. You can only appease so much before you look ridiculous. And passing Lieberman's version of health care reform would be impossible to sell to the Democratic base. So, don't worry about it and just change the strategy. Pass a package of insurance reforms, and then do the rest under reconciliation rules. Make sure to blame Lieberman. And take away his chairs and kick him out of the caucus after next year's elections. He's a Republican now."
• TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat: "What now? As if 'now' was different than 6 months ago. Here's the dirty little secret the Village Bloggers won't tell you -- there were never 60 votes for 'health care reform.' This ridiculous dance that began when [Finance Cmte Chair] Max Baucus did not deliver his crappy proposal on time was just part of the process to try and kill any health insurance bill. [...] In the end, the question was always about reconciliation and what could pass under reconciliation. Or do you REALLY think if you capitulated on 'everything,' they would not dream up new objections?"

Cole: "Repeat After Me: They are never going to vote for any health care bill. They are never going to vote for any health care bill. They are never going to vote for any health care bill. [...I]f you ditch the compromise and the public option, they will find something else to grandstand about. For Nelson, he'll be back to abortion. Who knows what Lieberman will start whining about, but I am sure [Lieberman comm. dir.] Marshall Wittmann is, as we speak, cooking up some fatuous bullshit. They are both in the pockets of insurance and other industries who do not want this bill passed in any shape or form, so they will keep making excuses. They are not going to vote for any health care bill. Period. You might as well be taking input and courting votes from [SC Sen.] Jim DeMint and [OK Sen.] Tom Coburn."

An exception is Nate Silver, who thinks that liberal Dems should give up on the public option in order to secure Lieberman's vote.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Is The Tide Turning?

Conservative bloggers are starting to believe that health care reform could actually fail:

• Commentary's Jennifer Rubin: "[A]ll this just goes to show how quickly ReidCare is unraveling."
• RedState's Dan Perrin: "[I]t appears that the ObamaCare implosion is imminent. ObamaCare is a political failure. Its political failure will lead to its legislative failure. It is just a matter of when."
• Right Wing News' John Hawkins: "Despite the Democratic attempts to paint the health care bill as an inevitability, the signs of life for the bill are looking ever more faint."
• AmSpec Blog's Philip Klein: "Either Reid will have to pull a new compromise out of his hat like magic or get liberals to accept all of Nelson and Lieberman's demands, or this thing is going to spill over into next year, and the whole effort may collapse altogether."
• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "It sounds as if this entire bill has become an abortion. Reid gave up the public option and still got no closer to cloture. If the CBO comes back with the obvious conclusion -- that expanding Medicare will make it more costly, explode the deficit, and make those $500 billion in cuts disappear -- Reid may never get back to any government expansion."

Other righty bloggers (Erickson, Johnson, McCain) are urging GOP senators to use various parliamentary tactics to obstruct the health care reform legislation.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: "The Looming Murder/Suicide Of The Democratic Majority"

Yglesias chastises "demoralized [Dem] voters who are considering staying home" on Election Day:

"Greg Sargent offers us a fascinating polling tidbit: 'A new national poll finds that fully one third of Democratic voters say that they're 'less likely' to vote in 2010 if Congress doesn't pass a public option, underscoring the possibility that dropping the provision seriously risks dampening the Dem base's enthusiasm.' I'm sure you'll read other progressive blogs today saying this illustrates why 'Democrats' shouldn't sell out on the public option. But realistically 'Democrats' have been trying very hard to get a decent public option compromise. Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are the roadblocks, and they probably don't have any particular desire to see progressive electoral victories in the midterms.

So it's also worth sparing a few words for the potentially demoralized voters who are considering staying home. To wit: Grow up. Nobody ever accomplished anything in politics by not participating. Going to vote on Election Day is not a monumental demand on your time, and there is not a single problem in American public policy that will be made easier to solve if liberal stay home on Election Day. If you contribute money or time to political campaigns and you’re disappointed with people you've given to or volunteered for in the past, you should of course feel free to decline to offer your cash and services in the future. But you shouldn't just get depressed and stay home, you should probably write a note and send it in the mail explaining exactly why you won't be donating this time and laying out which other, more progressive member you're choosing to support instead. And on Election Day you should go vote for the better candidate and hope he or she wins. Successful from-the-left primary challenges can do good, but letting the worse candidate win a general election isn't going to make anything better."

LEST WE FORGET: Holiday Music Aficionado Urges Friends To Check Out 'Frosty The Snowman'

From The Onion:

"SAN DIEGO -- Calling it one of the 'true overlooked gems' in the American Christmas-song canon, holiday music aficionado Steve Robinson strongly recommended this week that his friends 'do themselves a favor' and listen to 'Frosty The Snowman.' 'Oh man, "Frosty" is unreal, you got to check it out,' said Robinson, adding that the song's innovative fusion of jazz and lullaby conventions was 'peerless' and 'way ahead of its time.' 'Great concept, tight arrangement, and the lyrics are just incredible. Love that line about the "two eyes made out of coal." Classic.' Robinson also maintained that, with its unorthodox repetitive structure, dramatic build, and 'mind-blowing' imagery, 'The 12 Days Of Christmas' is about as good as it gets."