Bring Out the Cots
So Joe Lieberman thinks he's a mighty force? Here's what Harry Reid could tell him and his stalwart allies:
Show us the mettle, Joe & Co. If you want to filibuster, make it a real filibuster. None of this namby-pamby virtual stuff, but the real made-in-America kind--the stay-up-all-night, read-from-the-telephone-book, keep-the-chamber-pot-nearby kind, as described memorably by Eleanor Clift in Newsweek a few years back:
They used to call it "taking to the diaper," a phrase that referred to the preparation undertaken by a prudent senator before an extended filibuster. The late South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond holds the record for a solo filibuster from the time when he rambled for 24 hours and 18 minutes to prevent the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from coming to a vote. Thurmond geared up by visiting the steam room to get dehydrated so he could drink without needing a bathroom. An aide stood by in the cloakroom with a pail just in case.
Surely if it's so important to keep the country from lurching into a public option, it's worth putting your body where your sanctimony is. The memory of Strom Thurmond deserves no less.
Update 1, Oct. 28: Don't miss Michael Tomasky in the Guardian on Lieberman's "moral vanity."
Update 2, Oct. 28: When Ryan Grim of HuffPost explicitly asked Lieberman yesterday whether, to block the bill, he'd be prepared to "read from the phone book," in full-voiced filibuster style, he said: "I'd be prepared to."
Please Todd, this is the era of Governance Lite. No oversight, no responsibility, no accountability, just pay day.
October 27, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its the 'diapers' folks and NONE OF THE REPUB PANTY WASTES HAVE THE GUTS TO STAND UP IN FRONT OF THE C_SPAN CAMERA...for ten minutes let alone 12/24 hours! Boneher got face time on CNN saying he was going to present the repub plan but faked it saying they would be talking about it soon..BS,,,
October 29, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
So much for all of those wise heads who told Democrats not to enforce party discipline and punish Lieberman for his grotesque betrayals, because that would be "vindictive", and we would need his help on crucial votes.
The man should have been dragged by the Democratic caucus, en masse, to an upper floor of the Capitol and thrown out of a window.
I am so sick of belonging to the pussy party.
October 27, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you listen to the comments, it's clear that everyone is positioning himself (and in a couple of cases herself) for some hard bargaining. No-one, not even Lieberman, has sworn to uphold a filibuster against a bill with a public option. Lieberman has come closest, saying that he is against a public option, and also saying separately that he would support a filibuster against the proposal as it stands now, but he left himself some wiggle room - to remain against a public option but to vote for cloture if the bill is modified so that even with a public option, he can say that it will cost the taxpayers less.
I don't mention these things as a way of guaranteeing that an opt-out public option will pass - in fact, that is somewhat doubtful. It's failure is hardly a foregone conclusion, however, and some form of public option remains likely. High pressure politics are going to proceed, but mostly in private, and much of what gets said in public in the coming days may be at least as much a trial balloon as a declaration of final intent.
October 27, 2009 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, let's see some guts from Traitor Joe.
October 27, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
President Barack Husain Obaama
US House of Rep. Majority
US Senate Majority
Why is this not a done deal?
Maybe the details like: Trillion dollar cost
under the same guys that took Fannie and Freedie into the black hole, and who can forget CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) the cause of bank failure and the mess we are in right now.
October 27, 2009 10:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe Lieberman and Strom Thurmond. Now there's a pair to draw to.
October 27, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make them filibuster it. Then have them explain to all Americans why the profits of the billionares who own the insurance companies are more important than the health of the American people.
If Lieberman filibusters it he might as well look to take up residence in another state...he won't be welcome in our state of CT anymore never mind being able to caucus with the democrats...if Joe tries to filibuster this Reid needs to strip him of all his committee chairmanships and if he doesn't like that, tough, he can caucus with the R's. I should really check the US constitution and see if we have any recourse to recall him from office. He is nothing but a f'ing corporate whore...and I won't apologize, like Grayson did, for saying that.
October 28, 2009 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know the details, Libertine, but it's my impression that Hartford, Connecticut has been called "the insurance capital of America", and that the insurance industry, along with its wealth, is one of the major employers in Connecticut, with insurance industry employees being a powerful voting constituency.
October 28, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes it is...and if he is pandering to insurance company executives I don't think it'll be nearly enough to make a difference in his bleak reelection prospects. Anywho...our senior senator, Mr. Dodd, seems very comfortable with a public option, as does Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Courtney. So obviously he is on the wrong side of the issue if he thinks CT voters are all about Aetna's, the Hartford's and Cigna's collective bottom lines.
October 28, 2009 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
As always, the new minority hopes that the mere threat of a filibuster is enough to case the majority to give up without a fight.
October 28, 2009 12:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of Joe Lieberman, can you imagine if he and Al Gore had been inaugurated 9 years ago, and as sitting Veep he had become the presumptive nominee for President after the second Gore administration? When did he go bad?
October 28, 2009 12:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Make them filibuster on C-Span and in front of the cameras..Let us see the color of their guts! No virtual anything ---get out the 'diapers' Bring it on!
October 28, 2009 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm ashamed to admit that I voted for Lieberman exactly twice- on 7 NOV 2000- and in both cases he actually got more votes than his opponent. Of course, I didn't repeat that mistake in 2006, voting for a real Democrat.
As far as "taking to the diaper", Holy Joe should reconsider and defer to the expertise of his fellow Rumpublican't David Vitter from the great state of Louisiana.
October 28, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
When the Democrats handed Lieberman the gavel for his chairmanship, the Democrats relinquished any gravitas for political sophistication, and as a staunch Democrat, I am offended that Lieberman 'conned' everyone with the notional that "I'me with you on everything but the war." and which is crappola of the First Water on the Brain. Of course, the caucus could've stepped in and put a stop to this nonsene, but chose not to.
Thus, Lieberman has two opportunities to filibuster, either the cloture vote or the vote for up or down. I am hoping he goes for cloture on the basis that he needs to be driven out of the Caucus, and which provides the weak-kneed Democrats in his home state another opportunity at the ballot box and done with a reinforced justification. And for his home state voters, making a mistake is one thing, repeating it, is beyond Shame.
Jaango
October 28, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have waited 60 years for reform. I think waiting out Joe would be worth it. Let him try. The blood will be on his hands till he caves.
October 28, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I called this idea "the bioweapon option" back in 2005.
October 28, 2009 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I can say one good thing about our democracy, its the filibuster. Thank goodness there are people who will stand up to the health care bill. D
espite the fact that Democrats have a huge majority, the rights of the taxpayers may carry the day.
October 29, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would compare Sanctimonious Joe to a sucking leech draining America dry on behalf of the neocons and the insurance execs, but even leeches have a legitimate medicinal purpose. Holy Joe is that type of parasite that provides no collateral benefits, only collateral damage.
And to our filibuster-loving friend here: it is not "despite the fact that Democrats have a huge majority" that the rights of the taxpayers (to be taxed, ignored, and made complicit in a criminal foreign policy) will "carry the day." it is because of them. Lieberman was a Dem in good standing until the voters of CT unexpectedly dumped him from the Dem ticket. If not for that unseemly accident, Holy Joe's opposition might even seem "principled."
Voters, and the will of the people, are unpredictable things. But they count for far less than you would think.
October 29, 2009 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink