President Obama's Healthcare Proposal

[guido911]

Yes, it's a canard. Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats only because he gets chairmanships out of the deal. He is not at all a reliable vote for the Democrats, so relying on him to break a filibuster is like relying on Bill Clinton to keep his wang in his pants. It might happen out of pure coincidence, but you shouldn't expect it.

Edited to add: Lieberman as VP choice in 2000 is a great example of Democrats pandering to the right, whose votes they will never get anyway.

You cannot be serious in pushing the "it's Lieberman's fault" that Obama's agenda has stalled? It's not Obama's horrendous leadership or his decision to dump policy on Pelosi and Reid?

Let's cut to the chase, how many repub filibusters occurred last year and of those how many times did Lieberman join them or refused to break. I really want to know because the 2 biggest votes in 2009 in the Senate ($1T stimulus in Feb and the HCR bill in Dec.) got passed with Lieberman and 3 repubs (Snowe, Specter, and Collins--Lieberman's repub equals before Specter flipped)

[nathanm]

You cannot be serious in pushing the "it's Lieberman's fault" that Obama's agenda has stalled? It's not Obama's horrendous leadership or his decision to dump policy on Pelosi and Reid?

Let's cut to the chase, how many repub filibusters occurred last year and of those how many times did Lieberman join them or refused to break. I really want to know because the 2 biggest votes in 2009 in the Senate ($1T stimulus in Feb and the HCR bill in Dec.) got passed with Lieberman and 3 repubs (Snowe, Specter, and Collins--Lieberman's repub equals before Specter flipped)

I'm not saying anything is Lieberman's fault. I'm saying that Dems can't count on him for a 60th vote to break a filibuster. Of course, Dems can't count on many of their own for a 60th vote on a lot of issues. The Democrats are not like the Republicans. There are a lot of blue dogs in the party. Lieberman is just the least reliable of them.

Personally, I think giving Congress a chance to set policy, as is their Constitutional responsibility, was a good idea. Or it would have been if Reid weren't such a pansy.

[Conan71]

Why is everyone expecting lock-step partisanship?  Blue Dog has become such a derisive term.  This is a representative republic.  Why should a Congressperson from a conservative district in say, North Carolina or Oklahoma be expected to vote along with and share the same views as a Congressman from a liberal district in LA, Chicago, or NY?  It's not what their constituents hired them to do.  "Blue Dog" in my view is subtle intimidation, just like "global warming deniers".

[nathanm]

Why is everyone expecting lock-step partisanship?  Blue Dog has become such a derisive term.  This is a representative republic.  Why should a Congressperson from a conservative district in say, North Carolina or Oklahoma be expected to vote along with and share the same views as a Congressman from a liberal district in LA, Chicago, or NY?  It's not what their constituents hired them to do.  "Blue Dog" in my view is subtle intimidation, just like "global warming deniers".

As it stands, the Congressional Democrats are an ineffective counter to the blind loyalty to the whip that Congressional Republicans have for the most part.

I'd rather both parties be more like the Democrats, organizationally. I don't really want a hard push in any direction, save for enough of a push to the left to get us back to pre-Bush ideologically.

And FWIW, I try to reserve "global warming denier" to the likes of the fox news crew who have no substantive argument against the theory, but spew lies and half-truths in an attempt to discredit it. They're doing an excellent job of poisoning the well, and deserve to be called out on it. People who have thoughtful objections are horses of a different color.

[guido911]

This is really worth a look if you are interested in how flawed the CBO scoring of the Senate bill was. Ryan knows is smile: