As Democrats in Congress make a final push to reform the nation’s health care system, there is a predictable but utterly inexcusable obstacle blocking them: Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee who defected from the party after losing a primary campaign because of his support for the Iraq war.
Lieberman was never the most devout member of the party — he tends to side with Democrats on domestic policy and with Republicans on foreign policy and defense issues — but his statements during the past week provide good reason for Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to oust Lieberman from his powerful post as chairman of the Senate’s homeland security committee and tell him the Democratic caucus no longer requires his service.
After losing the Democratic primary election in his 2006 Senate re-election bid to millionaire Ned Lamont, an underwhelming first-time politician who rode a wave of discontent about the Iraq war, Lieberman used the power of incumbency to continue to campaign as an independent and retain his seat. Ever since, he has been identified as an “Independent Democrat.” He maintained his membership in the Democratic caucus, which means he adds to the Democrats’ majority and was counted as one of the sixty members that could presumably end any Republican attempts to filibuster major pieces of President Obama’s agenda.
After being re-elected as an independent, Lieberman’s intransigence only increased. He went so far as to campaign against Obama last year, giving a major speech at the Republican National Convention endorsing Republican John McCain. Still, Democrats allowed him to maintain his chairmanship.
Last week, Lieberman said he would join a Republican filibuster of a health care reform bill if it includes the option of a government-run plan designed to lower costs by competing with private insurers. He would vote to allow debate on a bill to begin, he generously conceded, but would not allow an up-or-down vote to take place if a public option is included in the plan.
What is the point of counting this man as part of the Democratic majority if he will not allow the majority of Democrats to vote on the centerpiece of their agenda? Democrats hold a majority with or without Lieberman, and allowing him to grab headlines for acting like a Republican is a sideshow that benefits no one. He won re-election as the de facto Republican in his 2006 race. It would be harder for him to win re-election in 2012 as a Republican, and against a Democrat with greater party backing than Lamont had, in the deep blue state of Connecticut.
Last Friday, Lieberman said he is ready to campaign for Republicans again in the 2010 midterm elections. “I’m going to call them as I see them,” he told ABC News. Asked if he would run as a Democrat in 2012, he replied: “That’s an open question.”
It needn’t be. It’s time for Harry Reid to tell Joe to go.