Thank you Joe Lieberman
I never thought I’d say it. I’ve never liked or trusted Joe Lieberman. But I have been proven wrong tonight.
Joe Lieberman was integral to the passage of the stimulus bill. As discussions between Senators Collins, Snowe, Nelson, Specter and Reid dragged on Joe Lieberman pushed the centrist group to get back to the negotiating table and get a deal done.
What made him so effective? Joe Lieberman’s relationship with the Republicans – particularly the Northeastern Republicans.
I would never expect Senator Lieberman to agree with me on foreign policy matters. But on domestic policy – particularly economic issues – Lieberman is and has always been a solid liberal. The man who spent every moment of the last year campaigning for John McCain has now helped President Obama pass one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent history.
Thank you Joe Lieberman.
Oh, and remember when many Democrats wanted to kick Lieberman out of the caucus? And remember when Obama stepped in and said “Let bygones be bygones”? Turns out that was a smart move after all.
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21 Responses to “Thank you Joe Lieberman”
And this is why Lieberman would never really have been welcomed into the Republican fold. Just look at the conservative bloggers' fury against the three that did join the Dems.
Its a 1000 page bill that was rushed thru congress.
Once again there will be NO ASKING OF QUESTIONS. THIS IS the democrats 911. Rush into action, Start throwing money everywhere, aimlessly and maybe they will kill a financial terrorist or two.
SLAMABAD – A suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said. (Under Bush this would have read…..Flattened a SUSPECTED militant hide-out)
I thought we learned our lesson with Bush but it is blatantly obvious now that the Democrats and the war just meant a way to piss off the nation and get back into power. Now were killing civilians in Pakistan under Obama and I bet all those antiwar types are just happy as bugs in rugs over this. Money to burn and men, women an chillin dropping like flies in Pakistan. What a day.
Since 1854, the U.S. has encountered 32 cycles of expansions and contractions, with an average of 17 months of contraction and 38 months of expansion.
In other words my friends. Recessions are part of the norm. The problem is that each recession is unique and this last one is the most dangerous of all because
1. Our borrowing capacity to deal with it is vastly curtailed due to economic morass of those who would lend to us. Japan, China and the EU.
2. Our debt is 10 trillion dollars when the last recession our debt was 5 trillion and their was NO borrowing to stimulate the economy. Simply more tax cuts.
When a recession is spurred by debt you just dont borrow, incurr more debt to stimulate the economy. The underlying problems need to be addressed and those were not even acknowledged in this 1000 page boondoggle.
I have to chime in here in support of greenschemes. I realize that the Five Day Sunshine Pledge was not intended to apply to “emergency legislation” so it doesn't apply here, but still. I downloaded more than 1500 pages of this bill in .pdf form from the House Appropriations Committee web site. It's obvious that not one of the sixty senators who voted for this bill had a chance to read the entire thing.
All we can say now is, this had better work. The Democrats have succeeded in rifling it through with effectively zero bipartisan support. This is their bill, lock stock and barrel. If it somehow manages to work they will have a powerful feather in their cap against the Republicans in the next two cycles. If our increasing mountain of debt fails to put the financial house back in order, though, expect the voters to weigh in on this in both 2010 and 2012. Needless to say, I am very, very concerned for the country's fiscal future at this point.
Kudos to Obama for reaching out a hand to Lieberman when so many in his party wanted to throw him overboard.
What Jazz said- also illustrated nicely by the cartoon just above this post. The fact that Joe Lieberman could have been drawn in there prying the elephant's mouth open doesn't make him a hero in my view, not at all.
I suppose this is as close to “bi-partisanship” as we are likely to come this year, which is faint, but certainly not meaningless praise. As for the rather giddy hopes on the part of some for the failure of this plan, I'll be interested in seeing reactions from people like GS and CS if it proves to be effective.
This to me is a blatant disreguard for the facts. I think Obama and the democrats are cooking the facts. Only using those facts which support their conclusions and throwing out those intell reports that do not. I think its time that we look into Impeaching Obama. This is clearly unacceptable.
I hope you felt this way during W's eight years.
Good point Rudi. Let's see… Obama has been in office three weeks now? Time to impeach him already? GS, you need to get a grip.
“This to me is a blatant disreguard for the facts. I think Obama and the democrats are cooking the facts. Only using those facts which support their conclusions and throwing out those intell reports that do not”~ Greenschemes
*****
So you're saying that Obama has borrowed Cheney's “Cookbook”? What's wrong with that? It was fine when the bookmarkers were red?
Blue wont' do eh? …lol…
This whole kudos of Lieberman thing rests on one very shakey premise: that this stimulus Bill was a good idea… I get almost as nervous about liberals celebrating a piece of legislation as I do conservatives. Either way the majority of us working stiffs in the middle are going to get the shaft.
Oh Elrod. You and I are fast becoming antagonists but if you do remember there were calls for impeaching Bush before he even attained office because of the Florida Dispute and sadly they have not stopped with your good buddy Leahy trying even today to stir up the witches cauldron for a good and tasty witch hunt.
Greenschemes,
I never said anything about impeaching Bush. You must be thinking of somebody else.
As for the bill that supposedly nobody read, give me a break. How do the Republicans “know” that the bill is “filled with pork” if they haven't even read it?
This is just more Nixonland garbage: “Well, this here bill is jes so darn biiig it MUST have something that we don't need in it! I bet some of it is going to San Francisco and to people havin' sex!” Cue John Boehner tossing the bill on the ground like a child.
Look, budget and spending bills are big. They always are.
But this bill's contents can be easily sifted through on the internet here.
Senators almost never read through the entirety of bills they vote on. That's why they have large staff. I can guarantee you that each and every Senator paid as much attention to this bill as they did to every other appropriations bill to come down the pike the last few years.
Jazz is right though. This is a Democratic bill. And that's how it should be. If it fails to boost the economy or save or create jobs, then the Democrats will and should pay a price at the polls. But if it succeeds and helps turn the economy, the Democrats are entirely in their rights for pointing out the role Republicans played in opposing it.
sorry Elrod. Your right that was Jspencer but you both speak so much alike that I confuse the both of you but my bad.
Whats done is done. Its passed. Its in the hands of the country now. Lets hope that these people know what they were doing because quite honestly I no longer have any faith at all in elected officials to do the right thing.
Only the expedient thing. Only what gets them elected. Only what pads their offshore bank accounts.
Only what benefits them
At least a few Republicans have praised the bill for the spending it brings to their districts, even though they voted against it.
They just want to cut spending for everyone else, not for themselves.
Plenty of spending (much of it awful) and growth of Washington, and firm Dem control of that growing, extra-large-spending Washington, have been established as precedents. That is likely what Obama had in mind all along. The bill itself is junk. You know they'll be back later with more stuff, some of it maybe better (some worse).
While I think the Democratic leadership could have spent an extra week allowing people to review the bill to a greater extent and similar measures, I've seen no evidence from the Republican congress members that they would have voted for this bill next week or the week after. Or the week after that.
Paca,
The “let's wait a week” line is a red herring. The Republican Party is ideologically wedded to a different theory.
Elrod you continue your partisan GOP bashing. So be it. The fact of the matter is that the democrats saddled the GOP with a war and turned everything in government about the War in Iraq. We could not even spend a week trying to get an Immigration bill before Harry Reid literally cut off discussion, forced a vote because in his words “He wanted to get back to passing resolutions on the Iraq war.”
So be it. It is what it is.
The GOP are kindly going to do what the Democrats did to them. Just as 74 senators voted to go to war and then backtracked so it is that the GOP who are part of this boondoggle are going to saddle the Democrats with the economy.
What goes around comes around and Im sorry to say this is whats coming around. Fortunately for the country there is just enough support in congress to pass whatever the democrats want. What happens next is “ALL” the democrats responsiblity. They better hope they get it right or they will find themselves sitting with the GOP in 2 to 4 years wondering how their empire crumbled so quickly.
What an amazing way to look at recent history!
Republicans were completely wrong about the War in Iraq.
I realize that plenty of Democrats went along with them, but in the early days, at least, Republicans painted themselves as the War Party.
Is being wrong about the war now the reason why they're right about the economy?
Republicans were completely wrong about the War in Iraq. …………..ACCORDING to the democrats. or those in Opposition.
Is being wrong about the war now the reason why they're right about the economy? I never said they were right. I said “It is what it is.”