'Zion Joe' Lieberman has been asking for it for so long, that he ought to hang a sign on his back reading "Kick Me". But the men's club known as the US Senate has it rules by god, and Henry Reid is such a nice guy. Joe vowed to join the Republicans and
vote against any health care bill the Democrats want to pass. There are several things the party could do to convince him to vote for reform:
- finance a viable progressive Democratic challenger in the Connecticut primary. This has been done once before with limited success because the opposition candidate was weak;
- strip him of his coveted Homeland Security chairmanship;
- use the reconciliation mechanism to pass a reform bill without Joe Lieberman's support.
US Person thinks the leadership should do all three and perhaps
more. Because as the
Washington Post points out in an opinion piece, "he's willing to directly cause the deaths of hundreds of thousand of people in order to settle an old electoral score". Just a few months ago Zion Joe was advocating expanding Medicare to include 50-65 year olds*. Certainly the leaders have the support of the party's rank and file to take action against a senator that does not negotiate in good faith. 81% think the Majority Leader should take Joe's chairmanship. And 73% think he should use reconciliation which requires only 51 votes to pass a reform bill. 84% want Joe to be challenged in the next primary if he refuses to support reform.
Tell the leaders Joe should shape up or ship out.
'Zion Joe' Lieberman has been asking for it for so long, that he ought to hang a sign on his back reading "Kick Me". But the men's club known as the US Senate has it rules by god, and Henry Reid is such a nice guy. Joe vowed to join the Republicans and vote against any health care bill the Democrats want to pass. There are several things the party could do to convince him to vote for reform: