Feingold Calls Obama Out for Hiding Behind Liebereman

[laughingliberal]

<snip> Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) similarly suggested that blaming Lieberman was ignoring the real culprit -- Obama.

"This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don't think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth," said Feingold. "I think they could have been higher. I certainly think a stronger bill would have been better in every respect."

As Politico's Craig Gordon noted about the president's health care maneuvering, "Time and again, rebuffed Democrats' requests to speak up more forcefully about what he wanted -- a strategy that allowed Obama to preserve maximum flexibility to declare victory at the end of the process, no matter what the final bill looked like."

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), pointed to polling that suggests Democrats will face trouble with their base if they don't deliver a strong bill. "Thirty percent of Democrats will not come out and vote if there is no public option in the health care bill," she said. "What does that tell you?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/democrats-lash-out-at-oba_n_394424.html

Is this not what we have instinctively felt all along? Our President was letting the Blue Dogs (who have the unfailing support of his CofS) take the fall with the base while they fully supported moving this bill to the right for the benefit of the insurance industry. I hope those campaign contributions turn out to be worth it for them.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Russ is one of the very, very few good ones.

[ThomWV]

10. and even fewer Smart ones.

[katty]

15. yes, very very few left

[Vidar]

2. Recommended.

[tabatha]

3. Maybe he was trying to avoid Clinton's mistake.

[laughingliberal]

7. Maybe. But there's a damned lot of territory between leaving Congress out of the process and going

AWOL while they work through the legislation. Ignoring the progressives in the House caucus who do still seem to be of the opinion that Obama favored a more liberal bill when they begged for his support, begged him to be a little more forceful in speaking out was, perhaps, a tad too hands off.

[tabatha]

11. He said he was deeply involved in the discussions.

[laughingliberal]

13. Sure. I know he worked closely with Baucus' gang of six thugs to make sure they

upheld his agreement with the pharmaceutical industry. He sent Rahm to beat up the progressives in the House to 'play nice' with the Republicrats. Yeah, they were involved. And publicly he praised the gang of six thugs for their hard work. Even after Grassley used the death panel meme, he praised him. And what did our progressive fighting for a sane bill get? Rahm called us the left of the left and said ads run by progressive groups fighting for a public option were, "fucking stupid." And President Obama called the public option he campaigned on a 'sliver.'

[Geek_Girl]

4. I wish Feingold was our president

:(

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Well maybe if Feingold provided more leadership in HIS Senate, this wouldn't have happened

The Senate is the problem here. They can't get their act together.

[laughingliberal]

8. I believe Russ fought for more protection for people. The gang of six thugs always appeared to be

sweethearts of the administration. I admire the courage of the ones who kept pushing for some sort of public option and protection for the American people from the sharks in the medical industrial complex. I know it was swimming upstream for them but they fought the good fight.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. No, the Senate is one facet of the problem

The lack of leadership from Obama is another. This is not binary, this is not either or. Sorry 'bout that. And by the way, Harry 'Faith Based' Reid is the Majority Leader, this is his Senate, not Feingold's. Reid and Lieberman.
But the real problem is Obama. Barack Obama. The Senate too. But also the President.

[laughingliberal]

18. I have to agree here. There is more than 1 villain, here and Harry dropped the ball a lot

But I have to note that he was none too damned happy about being told to dump the Medicare expansion to please Lieberman. And who told him that? Right. The White House. President Obama himself. Is there anyone who thinks that if President Obama said to Harry Reid, "Get me a bill with a public option to protect the American people any way you have to do it," that we would not be having an entirely different discussion, today? I don't buy it.

[RetroLounge]

6. And soon enough, Under the bus goes Russ

I'm sure Kucinich will move over to make room for you.

RL

[Zodiak]

9. LOL.....that bus is the place to be

Kinda like Southpark's version of "Hell"...where all the cool people are...oh, except for the Mormons.

Come to the hookey-lau...under the bus

[laughingliberal]

14. Lol! nt

[Laelth]

16. Obama is, indeed, 95% responsible for this horrible "health insurance reform" bill.

I see Rahm's fingerprints all over this mess. I think the President has been in complete control of the process from top to bottom.

I am very disappointed in him.


:dem:

-Laelth

[laughingliberal]

19. As surprising as this may sound, I held out for a long time believing the President had a plan

to get that public option in there. I read the reports about Rahm trashing the progressive caucus and I worried about it. But, I just knew our President would fight for the option that he campaigned on. I saw the handwriting on the wall and still believed he would stand up, in the end, for the people. Doubts began when he went MIA in August letting the teabaggers take control of the debate. Why isn't he fighting. The thought occurred to me then that it might be that this played into his real agenda, pushing the bill to the right and blaming the lies of the teabaggers for destroying the public option. But, he wouldn't, would he? I just refused to accept it. After the dust of August cleared, we saw support for the public option go up. Any poll done where people were asked if they believed in a government run plan they could have as one of the choices showed super majority type support. Okay, I thought, this was genius. He let the country see how crazy the opposition was and now that the support is overwhelming, he'll seriously kick ass on the Blue Dogs to get that public option through. Oh, wait. I just heard him say the gang of six thugs' bill is the one to watch. Did he just bless that bill? No, that doesn't make sense. He just needs to get those assholes to get that bill out of committee so we can start on a final bill with real health care reform in it. We're OK. He's still playing chess. What? Rahm called our very effective ads against the Blue Dogasses "fucking stupid?" That doesn't sound right. Oh, yeah, chess. If we piss the Blue Dogs off too soon they might not vote for cloture. Best to let them think they're getting their way. WTF??? Kathleen Sebelius just said the public option wasn't essential to health care reform. I think we've been played. I can't believe it! OK, calm down, the White House just walked that back. I get it! He needs the left to really get angry. Then he can show the hold outs how much support there is for the public option and threaten not to campaign for them if they oppose it. Ok, still chess....

Shall I go on?

[Laelth]

20. My faith didn't hold out as long as yours.

The President seems to feel that any bill, no matter how disastrous, is better than no bill. He appears willing to compromise away any part of this legislation just so he can say he succeeded at health care reform.

Of course, that's not what he has said in the past. Many people believed him when he said, "That’s why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange — a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs and track records of a variety of plans, including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest, and choose what’s best for your family."

Here: http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/any-bill-i-sign-must-include-a-public-option-but-not-really-because-i-lie-a-lot-in-case-you-havent-noticed/

Perhaps Obama will veto the final bill if it doesn't meet these criteria, but I have my doubts. I see Clintonian triangulation at work here. At this point, I think the President will settle for any bill. The result, I fear, will be a bill that hurts people more than it helps and that seriously harms the Democratic Party.

:dem:

-Laelth

[laughingliberal]

22. yeah, I tend to stay loyal until way past time I should face up to the facts. nt

[Laelth]

23. Smile. In many ways that's an admirable quality. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[laughingliberal]

24. Aww, thank you. Sometimes I believe that. Other times I feel like an idiot nt

[maryinthemorn]

17. Good ol Russ. He tells it like it is.

[flyarm]

21. Lieberman is doing Obama's bidding..count on that!

Remember Joe Lieberman was Obama’s Mentor in the Senate

By: fflambeau Monday December 14, 2009 10:05 pm

Those who are up in arms over Sen. Joe Lieberman’s "veto" of the extension of Medicare should remember this. When Sen. Barack Obama arrived in Washington, D.C. in 2005, he selected as his mentor none other than: Joe Lieberman.

Here’s David Sirota writing about this, after discussing Obama’s stab in the back of the progressive Lamont in Connecticut and his stab in the back of the progressive Christine Cegelis (Obama backed Duckworth) way back in 2006:

snip:

Other sources, including the Hartford Courant, reported that Obama chose Lieberman as his mentor.]

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/18929

[fascisthunter]

25. and it's about damn time

the whole thing has a been a dog and pony show from the beginning.