The Good Joe Lieberman, the Bad Joe Lieberman

One of the most baffling politicians for me has been Joe Lieberman. Lieberman was a Democrat until 2006 when he ran as an independent and defeated the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Connecticut. During the 2008 elections, he had spoken in the Republican convention and campaigned for the Republican nominee John McCain. There was talk among Democrats after the 2008 elections of stripping Lieberman of the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is responsible for assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Government, and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Air Land Forces. Barack Obama, though, wanted a fresh start with no animosity towards those opposed to him, so Lieberman was treated kindly by the incoming new administration.

I used to be a big supporter of Joe Lieberman because of his strong liberal positions for the environment, for labor and civil rights issues. Over the past few years though, I found myself disagreeing with his support of Bush's war in Iraq. I had supported Lieberman's run for the Presidency in 2004 in spite of his position in Iraq, I think because I had hoped that he would see how badly the Iraqi situation was deterioirating since the invasion and would change his mind, as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had done. Though he hasn't changed his opinions, I still respect him for being willing to think independently. Liberman's current opposition to the public option, however, has gone against his past liberal positions on a strong activist government role in solving pressing social and national issues. When I look at Joe Lieberman, I personally think there is a Good Joe Lieberman and a Bad Joe Lieberman.

The Good Joe Lieberman is very liberal in domestic issues. Lieberman has consistently scored over 90% in the National Environmental Scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters for the course of his Senate career, over 95% from NARAL for protecting a women's right to choose, over 90% from the Human Rights Campaign for his senate career in opposing discrimination against gays and lesbians, a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood. In 2005 the liberal activist organization Americans for Democratic Action gave Lieberman a liberal quotient of 80 out of 100 in 2005; a 75 in 2004; a 70 in 2003; an 85 in 2002; and a 95 in 2001. He's led the effort to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, fought attempts to weaken the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. He's fought to protect a woman's right to choose and he's fought to protect affirmative action laws. He's fought for laws to ban discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation. He's fought to prevent hate crimes against gays, to provide the same benefits for domestic partners that are enjoyed by straight spouses. He's fought to ensure collective bargaining rights and to safeguard worker's rights. He's fought for laws to protect striking workers from losing their jobs to scabs. He voted against Alito for the Supreme Court. On these issues Lieberman has been very good.

The Bad Joe Lieberman is very bad in foreign affair issues and in loyalty to the Democrats. In spite of the fact that the Democrats haven't stripped him of his chairmanship and have gone out of their way to treat him well, he still went to talk in the 2008 Republican convention and attack Obama. His support of the war in Iraq was uncritical of George Bush. He did an article in the New York Times in the mid 2000s telling Democrats to squash dissent on Bush's policies in Iraq and to just unquestioningly support him when Bush's Iraq policies were going so badly and criticism was justified. I think he was insane to suggest in 2008 that we should invade Iran when our troops are already stretched in both Iraq and Afganistan. On foreign policy he's been dead wrong.

This sort of Jeckyl and Hyde quality of Joe Lieberman has shown itself in the past few weeks in two important national issues. On the one hand, Joe Lieberman has been quietly working with the White House and with LGBT advocates to overturn the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" military policy involving LGBT soldiers. Lieberman has opposed the policy since it was first proposed in 1993, and as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has some influence in possibly changing the policy. Here is the good Joe Lieberman.

On the other hand, Senator Lieberman has indicated that he opposes the current health care reform proposals that include a public government option and may filibuster any reform proposals that include the public option. Here is the bad Joe Lieberman, and this instance is especially baffling to me. Despite his conservative views on foreign affairs, Lieberman has been a consistent progressive on most domestic issues, and he has also been a strong past advocate of a strong government role in allaying our nation's ills. The current public option proposals that Harry Reid has advocated would give states the choice of opting out of the public government option by 2014. This more watered down version of a public option includes a provision from the Finance Committee bill allowing for the creation of nonprofit health care cooperatives that would negotiate collective insurance coverage for members. Martin Vaughan, of Dow Newswire, wrote an article on the October 30, 2009 Dow Jones Newswire about the compromises that the House Democrats are making to insure that they have the votes to pass a health care reform package. He wrote:

"The House bill is also likely to expand eligibility for the Medicaid program to those with income of up to 150% of poverty level. That provision is being included in part to keep costs down, since under the House proposal it will be cheaper for the federal government to insure low-income families through Medicaid than to provide subsidies for purchasing private health insurance.

...The rejection of the "robust" public option, which would have reimbursed doctors and hospitals based on Medicare rates instead of negotiated rates, is something of a victory for moderate Democrats and the health-insurance industry, which worries that it won't be able to compete with a strong government-backed insurance program.

This attempt by Democrats to appease its moderate and liberal factions should have appeal to Lieberman. Instead of acting as a roadblock to an important bill, Lieberman should be working to find centrist Republicans to support a public option and a health care reform with some teeth.

Joe is not really a Democrat, but he's too liberal on social issues to be a Republican either. He's just Joe Lieberman. On most domestic issues, he is usually an ally to progressive change. I hope he is able to see the logic of a public option and how it can act as a leverage in the long run to drive down health care costs and to give viable options to those Americans who would otherwise be unable to afford any sort of health care insurance.