They Shoot Traitors, Don't They?

Or they should have, back in 2006, when Traitor Joe Lieberman defied the Democratic Party to run as an independent against the duly-elected Democratic Party nominee.

Since then he's done nothing but fuck over the Democratic Party and the nation at every opportunity. Besides voting with the repugs to support Smirky Darth on the Iraq Clusterfuck, on torture, on secrecy, on illegal wiretapping, on tax cuts for the rich, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum, Lieberman - wait for it - endorsed and campaigned for the repug nominee for President.

So I'd ordinarily be chortling and yelling "I told you so!" to the Senate Democratic "leadership" and President Obama, who thought it was soooooo clever to reward Traitor Joe with exactly the committee chairmanship he wanted. I would, if Traitor Joe's latest betrayal weren't threatening to literally destroy the country.

This isn't a fucking game. This is the last - the LAST - chance to rescue an economy that cannot survive without substantial national health care reform.

On Monday, before Harry Reid announced a deal on a public option that was promptly ruined by Traitor Joe's betrayal, Robert Reich explained why a strong public option - rather than the "trigger" the Senate is now likely to "compromise" on - is so essential.



Reich's call to "redouble our efforts" is even more critical now.

Call the President (202-456-1414), your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and your Senators (202-224-3121). Click here to send them each an email or a letter.

And click here to sign this petition:

PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Every day, insurance companies deny care and let people die. Getting one Republican senator's vote is not worth delaying reform -- too many real lives are at stake. We need you to fight and state clearly that anything less than a strong public option is not change we can believe in."

President Obama and Senate Democrats thought we would be satisfied with just the announcement of a strong public option they knew goddamn good and well they would dump after it had distracted everyone from the real deal.

They're willing to sacrifice the economy, the lives of 45,000 Americans every year and Democratic control of Congress and the White House for a generation in order to get a worthless piece of shit they can claim as a victory.

Digby:

This would be a very, very, very big mistake on Reid's part. Ezra writes today about how much liberals have already compromised and it's kind of stomach churning to see it all laid out. (Considering how much shit we've taken for being "unreasonable" and how every villager has spent the last few months opining how terrific it was that the Democrats were slapping their liberal base in the face, I suppose we're lucky that they haven't decided to allow insurance companies to deny coverage based on voting record.) Doing something cute like that would unleash a firestorm. Opt-out is only being accepted as a way to get the public option into the conference with the (slim) hope that they can get something better. Opt-in isn't the same thing and unlike the Villagers, we know it. Reid and the President will get no credit if they do this. None. Indeed, it will be seen as a betrayal of the highest order.

If the plan here is to placate the base, dangling the half baked opt-out compromise and getting liberals to sign on, then pulling it back in favor of some cute "sound alike," it would be so insulting I think they might just blow the whole thing up. It would take a lot to get liberals to vote against a health care bill, but if they want to test it, treating them like idiots might be a way to do it.

But we're not as stupid as they think we are. The strong public option they've already thrown overboard is the MINIMUM we'll accept.

Tell them so.