It's not about vindication, it's about prevention of the next royal fucking.

[johnlal]

We had suffered the first term of the Bush Administration. The Republicans had control of the government, and conditions were intolerable. We banded together, gave our money and got out the vote. In 2006, we stunned the GOP by bringing a majority to both houses of Congress.

Promptly thereafter, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, gave a press conference in which she said, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Impeachment is off the table”. And the House of Representatives kept to her promise. Despite evidence of torture, warrantless wiretapping, politicization of the Department of Justice, and generally shredding the Constitution, Bush was not impeached. Pelosi stated that the election was not about “getting even with the Republicans” for years of bad treatment, and hoped to work in a bipartisan matter.

Meanwhile in the Senate, the Republican minority used procedural tricks and filibusters to block any Democratic initiatives. In the 2006 primary election, Joe Lieberman was defeated by a more liberal Ned Lamont for the Democratic nomination. Nonetheless, Lieberman quit the Democratic Party and ran in the General Election as an independent. Many prominent party leaders, and several sitting Democratic Senators endorsed the independent candidate over the Democratic nominee, Lamont. They urged voters that Lieberman was “with us on everything but the war”. Lieberman beat his Democratic Challenger, and the Democrats lost a seat in the Senate.

Harry Reid allowed Lieberman to keep his chairmanships on some very important and high profile committees.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid, the new Senate Majority Leader, allowed Republican obstructionism to run rampant, while in the meantime he crushed liberal Senators’ use of the same procedural tactics to advance their own agenda.

So we dug deeper and we gave our money and delivered our votes to put a Democrat in the White House, to elect a bigger majority in the House of Representatives, and to give a filibuster-proof majority to the Senate (if we could count on Lieberman’s “with us on everything but the war” vote).

Lieberman endorsed Republican Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential elections, questioning Obama’s patriotism in the process.

In the aftermath of the election, Harry Reid was asked about how Lieberman would be dealt with. He said:
– “We’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”
– “I understand anger. … I would defy anyone to be angrier than I was. But is this a time when we walk out of here and say, ‘Boy, did we get even?’”
– “I am satisfied with what we did today. I feel good about what we did today. I don’t apologize to anyone for what we did today.”
– “The question is, do I trust Senator Lieberman? The answer is yes, I trust Senator Lieberman.”

We then prevailed upon President Obama to investigate the torture and wrongdoing that occurred during the Bush Administration. Obama said he was more interested in “looking forward, not looking backward”. He said that “Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”
And now the issue of healthcare: The Democratic House of Representatives, with it’s huge majority, declined to even consider a single-payer plan. They passed a bill that watered down the “public option”. The Democratic Senate refuses to use the 60 vote majority we gave them to pass healthcare reform. Joe “With us on everything but the war” Lieberman struck a deal with Harry Reid to scuttle the “Public Option” in the Healthcare reform bill, in favor of a Medicare Buy-in plan.
Prominent Democrats went to the air on all the talk shows to tell us what a great deal the Senate had made, and how the Medicare buy-in was much better than the “public option”. And that loudmouth liberals needed to keep their mouths shut. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”, they chided us.
Then Lieberman said he wouldn’t vote for the Medicare buy-in either.

And the Democrats came out and told us not to scuttle the remains of the program. Obama warned us that the wellbeing of the country depended on passing this bill. Any bill.

Now, Democrats are making the rounds of the talk shows, telling us that it’s about passing a bill, it’s not about being vindictive or punishing Lieberman.

I agree. It’s not about being vindictive. Vindication relates to looking back to things that have happened in the past. This is not about being fucked by the democrats over and over and over again in the past. This is about learning from that, and trying to avoid being fucked in the future.
A healthcare bill with a “robust public option” has not been delivered. Sometime, somewhere, there has to be accountability for the failure. It will come down on Obama to be sure. But Joe Lieberman has to be punished. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi must be replaced. Somebody has to pay. Otherwise, we’re going to keep getting fucked.
When does this end?

[BeHereNow]

1. It doesn't end. Not as long as so many people don't comprehend the problem.

The problem is the influence and stranglehold of corporate
interests throughout all three branches of our government.
People still believe the conflict is between parties.
The wake up will come when and if people understand that both parties
work for the corpora fucks and not the people.

I aint holding MY breath.

BHN

Recommended btw...

[librechik]

2. After a story like that, how can you think we can avoid the next royal fucking?

it's written in to the system now. The more we struggle the more they squeeze. we are in the grip of a python. We thought we saw a man with an axe to save us. It was only someone else caught in the coils of the snake, just further up.

[johnlal]

3. ... And then they took away the "reach around" n/t

[Zodiak]

4. Nice post.....a decent run-down of this microchosm of politics

The Democrats and Joe Fucking Leiberman both lied to the liberals and progressives at every turn, didn't they?

And they turned on a dime in 48 hours on their commitments to the public option.

They're telling us they will "keep working" on this. Bullshit. You "leaders" have lied to us at every turn, and now you come to us with a pig in a poke and tell us that being shackled to the suckling mouth of the murderous insurance corporations is gonna be good for us? And it's okay because you're "working on it"?

Piss off. Now you're going to lose everything, and it is your fault. Earn our votes or piss off.

[johnlal]

5. The constant mass e-mails suck, too.

All these e-mails I keep getting from Moveon and Barrackobmama.com asking me to fight for healthcare reform. After all this, and it's MY burden?

[Zodiak]

6. It's fairly presumptive is it not?

And we are being dismissed and cajoled publicly.

You know what, if being an asshole to this administration gets an invite and a capitulation, Obama and the corporate Dems are about to be "assholed" from the left...to all of our detriment.

But they asked for it.....many, many, many times over.