Joe Lieberman's wife - he wife of Senator Joe Lieberman—whom the Times dubs a "master infuriator" for his recent threat to join a Republican filibuster unless Democrats drop a plan to let uninsured Americans under 55 purchase coverage under Medicare—is in the cross hairs. Liberal activists led by the blog Firedoglake are calling upon the Susan B. Komen Foundation to fire Hadassah Lieberman, who works as a paid international spokesperson for the breast-cancer research group.Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, herself a breast cancer survivor, is demanding that "no more money raised for cancer treatment be given to Hadassah Lieberman or any other ex-Pharma/Insurance strategists... For decades, [she] has worked for the insurance-pharmaceutical-lobbying complex. Like Newt Gingrich, Dick Gephard and Tom Daschle she never registered as a lobbyist to avoid the official taint, but nonetheless worked at the powerhouse lobbying shops Hill & Knowlton and APCO. She also did stints at Pfizer and Hoffman-La Roche."
As the White House meets with Democratic Senators today in an attempt to close ranks on a health care bill, MoveOn.org is holding a rally outside the White House to call on President Obama to "stand up" to Senator Lieberman "and fight for health care reform with a public option." Lieberman, who has received more than $1 million in insurance company campaign contributions since 1998, surprised Democrats Sunday by saying that expanding Medicare would be "extremely expensive." But Lieberman was for the Medicare buy-in before he was against it, as as this video shows.
But what Joseph wants, Joseph gets; yesterday White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to order him to cut a deal with Lieberman. According to one of Reid's aides, "It was all about 'do what you've got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done." The White House wants the bill passed by Christmas, and they've given up on the public option and on expanding Medicare to get Lieberman's vote, making liberals apoplectic. "If you think you are sick of Joe Lieberman now," Jim Shea, a columnist in The Hartford Courant, wrote Monday, "just wait until you get sick.