“At the end of the day Sen. Lieberman will vote to cut off debate,” said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager of Healthcare for America Now. “He’ll do what he has to do. He’s making a lot of noise.”
I can only hope this confidence is not misplaced. A whole lot is riding on an expectation that Joe Lieberman will not choose betrayal over progress.
Of course, if the scuttlebutt is right, and when push comes to shove, Democrats can count on Lieberman at least voting for cloture, what’s the point of the Connecticut senator’s bluster? A few things may be motivating him. For one thing, Lieberman sees an opportunity to drag the reform bill to the right, so he’s taking advantage of it. For another, he’s picking up bargaining chips he can use now and in the future.
But perhaps most important is the fact that Joe Lieberman enjoys vanity exercises. By threatening to kill health care reform, Lieberman gets attention. He feels important. His phone keeps ringing. People want to know how to make him happy. He gets to go on television a lot. As Lieberman declared late last week, “I feel relevant.”
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