Let’s consider Joe Lieberman for a moment. At what point exactly did he get in the national spotlight? Hmmmmm, let’s see if we can remember.  If I am thinking correctly (and I don’t always), it was at the 2000 Democratic Convention when Senator Lieberman formally accepted the nomination to run on the Democratic ticket in the hopes of becoming the Vice President of the United States.

Now, he is basically a Republican who is allowed to caucus with the Dems, giving him the advantage of playing both sides against each other. I believe he technically calls himself an Independent, but when looking at his votes over the last few years, you have to kind of have to wonder. Given the economic situation facing us, the fact that we are in two wars, and the issues of health care and climate change, in my mind, he has become the biggest scumbag in recent history.

My particular issue with him is health care. I work a number of jobs, but because I work freelance or as a contractor, I don’t have health care through my jobs. You would imagine that I would have it through my government, but for some reason that I have yet to comprehend, universal access to health care is considered “Un-American” as defined by the likes of Sarah Palin.

As it currently stands, health care has passed through the house with kudos going to both Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Now, the bill needs to get through the senate, which might be kind of a problem for a few reasons.

First, because of the filibuster process, the senate needs 60 votes to pass the vote. Basically, the filibuster gives the right to the opposing party to delay the vote indefinitely by talking bullshit and nonsense. The only way to break a filibuster is to get 60 votes, and then it’s ok to vote on the issue.

Last week, Scott Brown got elected in the state of Massachusetts to replace Sen. Ted Kennedy who died last year as a result of a brain tumor, which left the Dems with only 59 votes, which is not enough to pass health care. If Ted Kennedy, who was always a big supporter of health care, had lived, the United States would have health care reform. Or, if Joseph Lieberman, who seems to think that betraying the beliefs he had held for a lifetime, had not switched parties, we would have health care reform.


As I said earlier, Joe Lieberman is allowed to caucus with the Democrats and even retains a chairmanship as a Democrat, but is promising not to stand by the Democrats on health care reform. Obviously, I am not a political pundit of the highest order, but something is wrong with this scenario- someone needs to play hardball and kick him out of his chairmanship if he doesn’t vote with the Dems.

Again, I don’t understand why health care reform should be such a partisan issue as I believe that the people in the US should be more important than the insurance companies. I also refuse to believe that one Senatorial race in one state constitutes the belief of the entire populace that health care reform is not important.