Turns out that, in the show I was grateful I wouldn't watch, Lieberman made news by moving his goal posts behind the back of the end zone. It now appears that the health care bill meets his personal requirements and we are on to appeasing Nelson. It is easy to regard these guys with aversion, but don't forget the Republicans and the Senate rules that make it all possible. I wrote the following letter to the editor, which was printed in Thursday's Star Tribune (the link will soon die):
If a candidate for president were to receive 59% of the national vote, it would be regarded by all as a landslide, an unambiguous mandate. But for some reason that is not enough of a super majority to pass needed reforms in the US Senate.
It's bad enough that we might not get meaningful health care reform. We also have to watch Joe Lieberman, I-Conn, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb, the prospective 59th and 60th votes for reform in the Senate, primp and preen while playing hard to get. If you add together the entire populations of the states they represent, then multiply by 12, you're getting pretty close to the number of people who voted for Obama. Yet it is now clear that, on this issue, they have all the power and he is irrelevant.
Meanwhile, the Republicans act as if they meant only to tighten their grip on Alabama and Idaho. Well, why not? The fate of health care reform rests with one guy from Connecticut and another from Nebraska. Insane.
--Eric Jorgenson
I think I was trying to cheer myself up in that last paragraph. The Republicans will probably do more than tighten their grip on Alabama and Idaho in 2010. The country is full of crazy people.
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