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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Lieberman remains a filibuster threat

Posted: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:15 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:

From NBC's Chuck Todd and Mark Murray
Earlier this morning, we clipped an article from The Hill, which reported that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-D) "has reached a private understanding with Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will not block a final vote on healthcare reform."

But not so fast...

Lieberman communications director Marshall Wittmann emails First Read, "If you believe this story is true, you will also believe that I am replacing A-Rod in game six of the series."

Translation: Lieberman remains a threat to filibuster the Senate health-care bill, if it contains a public option.

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Anyone who believes anything that comes out of Reid's mouth is an idiot.

Same goes for Pelosi.

And, come to think of it, same goes for Obie.
Just a plea
If elections are takeing place in your locality please Vote.
I might not agree with you all but i still want you to be heard and the best way to do that is to vote.

as for me I will be voteing for School Board members only in my neighborhood.
Lieberman will negotiate anything, even his soul.  My bet is he wants to be at the bill signing ceremony and get one of those signing pens so he can give it to his grand children. After all,he thinks his ego is worth the healthcare of 30 million Americans. What a jerk!!
EGAD! YIKES! THE SENATOR (I) FROM ISRAEL THREATENS TO BRING DOWN HEALTH & INSURANCE REFORM FOR YET ANOTHER DOSE OF SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT! HOW ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC CONFERENCE STRIP HIS A$$ OF ALL CHAIRMANSHIPS.
"To filibuster, or not to filibuster....THAT is the question..."

I paraphrase the Bard, but we all know it matters not...The bill will be forced through no matter what, cuz them with the mostest (politicians, lobbiests, or those with the bucks behind the throne)will do what they wish anyway....

No matter which side of the aisle the majority of the voter's opinions sit on...
The talk is that HCR legislation will be pushed into 2010. Good luck to the all Democrats running next year that vote for raising taxes on the middle class, rationing health care services, and cutting Medicare to the bone. Can't see how you can lose with that voting record.
Isn't it interesting that Pelosi and Reid keep saying they "Have the votes", but they never schedule a vote?
FR: Lieberman communications director Marshall Wittmann emails First Read, "If you believe this story is true, you will also believe that I am replacing A-Rod in game six of the series."


Whittman crushes fastballs, but he couldn't hit a curveball if his life depended on it.
JOE LIEBERMAN

Man, the world is turning upside down.
People is the streets ptotesting White House and government corruption. Suggestions to ignore GM, Chrysler and all banks and other financial institutions that were "bailed out" and now under the goverments's thumb. The prez dueling it out with Fox News, whose "Fox News Alert" has been copied by every news station in the country, including CNN, which had it's lowest ratings ever just last week.
"If you can't play with the big dogs then stay on the porch." And Joe Lieberman and Sarah Palin prime fixtures in the Democratic slide. Let's be fair and give the credit for the majority of the slide to the arrogance of Obie, Pelosi and Reid, who want to slam unwanted radical policies down American thoats.

It really isn't about Dems and the GOP. It's about liberal insanity and conservative roots and reality.



Full Moon
Palomino
Fortunate Son ... and the rest.
Can we all agree that Lieberman must have not gotten to many hugs as a child,he sure craves attention.Reminds me of the rest of the TV whores in Washington.Or is it like Nascar,if they see you drinking a coke during an interview,you get at-a boys.If the insurance boys see Joe does he get another check from his real employer,we know who that is, don;t we?
And from the looks of poll results for Lincoln and Nelson, he will probably stand alone.  Personally, I don't think Lieberman has the courage to stand by himself; he's a calculating, self-serving person and he knows that if he does vote for filibuster, he is toast.  He can vote against the final bill but if he supports the filibuster, he's dead in the water.  He certainly doesn't have the courage to stand by his 2006 campaign promises so why would he stand alone.  My prediction for 2010 is that Lieberman is calculating his next move; should the Senate (not likely) go republican, he will switch to the GOP caucus; he wants to remain with the majority to retain his power status.    
I guess if the Democrats don't have any facts, just lie. Here they lied about Lieberman. For what reason? Who knows. Then there is the cost of Pelosi's HCR reform bill that is well above a trillion now, but Nancy says it's under $900 billion. Why does she lie? Who knows. I guess that's just what the Democrats and Pelosi do. It just comes natural to them I guess.
Joe Lieberman and other republicans do not want any kind of reform. They are more interested in maintaining the status quo even though it is an unsubstainable system.

When enough middle and upper class families lose their subsidized health insurance and start getting the real bills for their healthcare then there will be changes to the system.

Until then too many will think any reform will benefit someone eles and not them when the big irony is that it is middle class families most at risk of losing their insurance.

Obama telling Karzai that "words matter". Too funny.
It's TIME to THREATEN that BOZO Lieberman

COOPERATE with the Democrats on HCR or LOSE YOUR SENIORITY


The earlier article spoke of Demcorats Disappointed with Obama

I'm DISAPPOINTED WITH OBAMA because he's such a WIMP and a SISSY

MAN UP, OBAMA !!
Be a MAN and use your powers

STOP being a little SISSY !!

Start calling the Blue Dogs on their votes
Lying Dems (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:37 AM)
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
And the biggest lie of all “They have WMD’s!”
American lives lost  4,356
Americans Wounded 31,545
Don't see where he/she said a Republican would win. He said a Democreatin would lose, which is true.

LL Dean (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:03 AM)

You evidently can't read LL Dean, witch is normal for a neo-con, he/she said in the first sentence "Clean sweep for the Republicans". "better to be thought stupid, than open your mouth and remove all doubt".
Mo


Should we tell Mo? Or just let him/her figure it out.
Ha! Harry Reid just got busted in a bold faced lie. He's about as sleezy as they come.
JU JITSU !!
How to LOSE by WINNING


Where is the Circus?
Here come the clowns !!

From Washington Monthly:

'...TAKING THE MODEL ON THE ROAD....

In New York's 23rd, it was the Republican Party vs. the Republican Party's base. The party wanted a moderate candidate with a history of serving the community; the base wanted a right-wing newbie who didn't actually live in the district. The base won; the GOP candidate was forced out of the race; and the far-right Beck acolyte is poised to do very well today.

So, any chance the Tea Party crowd will feel satiated, content in knowing they proved their point? Fat chance.

In what could be a nightmare scenario for Republican Party officials, conservative activists are gearing up to challenge leading GOP candidates in more than a dozen key House and Senate races in 2010.

Conservatives and tea party activists had already set their sights on some of the GOP's top Senate recruits -- a list that includes Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida, former Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut and Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, among others.

But their success in Tuesday's upstate New York special election, where grass-roots efforts pushed GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race and helped Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman surge into the lead on the eve of Election Day, has generated more money and enthusiasm than organizers ever imagined.

Activists predict a wave that could roll from California to Kentucky to New Hampshire and that could leave even some GOP incumbents -- Utah Sen. Bob Bennett is one -- facing unexpectedly fierce challenges from their right flank.

"I would say it's the tip of the spear," said Dick Armey, the former GOP House majority leader who now serves as chairman of FreedomWorks, an organization that has been closely aligned with the tea party movement. "We are the biggest source of energy in American politics today."

"What you're going to see," said Armey, "is moderates and conservatives across the country in primaries."



And there's not much party leaders can do about it.

After spectacular failures in 2006 and 2008, Republican officials resisted calls to move the party towards the middle, but they nevertheless recruited candidates intended to have fairly broad appeal. Now they've finding an enraged, uncompromising, right-wing base that will settle for nothing short of everything. If that means losing elections and driving moderates from the ranks, so be it.

For more moderate candidates, that means moving sharply to the right. For targeted GOP incumbents, it means less compromising, less constructive lawmaking, and more fealty to right-wing demands.

It's not enough to run a scorched-earth campaign against the governing majority -- Republican officials are now expected to salt the earth, too...'


Let's hope Republicans eat their young !!
A party of 'Beck disciples' ??
BRING IT ON !!

Here's hoping the GOP WINS in the NY-23 and it leads the cross burner to sweep the Republican Primaries

Dick Armey and his Dick Army !!
Joe will side with the privelleged few against the greater good everytime. They are his party
No but just like the last election they'll vote against the party in power.

Alan, NJ (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:30 AM)
___________

So… you’re sticking to your ‘theory’ that the Independents will vote with the party whose leadership is the Palin’s, Bachmann’s, Fox’s Limbaugh’s Beck’s? You know the 'real' American's?

That 'brand' is as tainted as rotten moose meat!

Good luck with that!  lol lol lol
Joe Lieberman has found a new way to get his name in the news, the filibuster threat, Lieberman is the perfect example of a useless oppurtunistic politician.
Isn't it interesting that Pelosi and Reid keep saying they "Have the votes", but they never schedule a vote?
They Don't Have The Votes

The other thing you hear from the Dums is "We agree on 90% of the legislation.". That last 10% then must be a bear to work out.
MSIERRA

"it's time to threaten Joe Lieberman."

What a stupid statement from one who is a self-proclaimed class act.

You scare yourself. Why throw it on others?

Joe's his own person .... something that Obie is not.
Every time I think Lieberman cannot become a smaller, more petty, more vindictive "human being", he proves me wrong AGAIN.  This isn't about the greater good with little small pathetic Lieberman, this is about his ego, about revenge and how much money he gets from the Insurance Companies in Hartford.  Time for the voters of Conn. to kick him out on his ugly behind.
"THE SENATOR (I) FROM ISRAEL THREATENS TO BRING DOWN HEALTH & INSURANCE REFORM FOR YET ANOTHER DOSE OF SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT!"
tom tyskiewicz, forest hills, pa (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:28 AM)
_____________________
Was this a typo?  Did you mean "the senator from Aetna"???

Forget Liberman,Senator Burris has more leverage and could be trusted more, so don't have a public option and see who really pay's for at lets with Burris reconcilation is a go now you do the math Burris is a Demorcrat not a angry politician like Liberman kick him out and watch McCain call him out it's a shame elected official's still being bought hey at least all us voter see who really on their side now.
Forget Liberman,Senator Burris has more leverage and could be trusted more, so don't have a public option and see who really pay's for at lets with Burris reconcilation is a go now you do the math Burris is a Demorcrat not a angry politician like Liberman kick him out and watch McCain call him out it's a shame elected official's still being bought hey at least all us voter see who really on their side now.
Since when do you REWARD bad behavior??

Feisty Redhead Roselle, IL (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:09 AM)

----------------------------------------------------

Just ask Chicago Democrat Mayor Richard Daley why there has not been a Republican mayor of Chicago in over 80 years. Can you say rigged elections? Just ask the thousands of Chicago city workers (non-union of course) asked to take UNPAID holidays to close the budget gap.

So much for one party rule by the Dems for almost a century. No wonder you live OUTSIDE Crook County Feisty.

"Do as I say not as I do." -Democratus Hippocritus  
Love how Lieberman would making the dems crazy.
MAN UP, OBAMA !!
Be a MAN and use your powers
MSierra, SF
-------------------------------------
Obama may be skinny, but he is still a hand puppet of the left.

Maybe we need a fatter hand up Obamas backside calling the shots.

Hey, Soros, put on some heavy winter gloves before you run your left hand up the Coward-In-Chiefs socailist sphincter. It will make him seem more robust!
MAN UP, OBAMA !!
Be a MAN and use your powers
MSierra, SF


..........


"What's the matter with you. Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood finocchio that cries like a woman."
Lieberman will negotiate anything, even his soul.  My bet is he wants to be at the bill signing ceremony and get one of those signing pens so he can give it to his grand children. After all,he thinks his ego is worth the healthcare of 30 million Americans. What a jerk!!
Ron Indiana (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:28 AM)

Yup, that's ol Joe LIEberman for you. Craving attention, trying to be important when nobody really cares about him. Some would call him a drama (king).

He should have Dem. bus treads on his head already.
Yesterday I was driving home from work when I noticed a group of elderly people at the Bart station with signs saying "Stop Socialism" "No Obamacare" - so I went home and made up a new sign so I can march with them (after all I am elderly too!).

Here's my new sign:

"Stop Socialism NOW"
"No Medicare"
"NO Social Security"
"No cops"
"No Firefighters"
"No teachers"
"No public schools"

Do you think this will cause a riot?
Could someone PLEASE urge politicians and political commentators alike to please stop using the word 'tea-baggers'? I understand it expresses the vitriol of the Democrats and thier party against the right-wing fringe group and their gatherings, but it is one of the most disgusting terms, and I can not believe that this has become a popular term that is used entirely too frequently. Did it ever occur to any of the mediots that perhaps this is the reason that so many are going to the polls to voice their displeasure with the current administration and the lemmings that follow them around in the main-stream media? There was a promised vision of change and unity, yet, there seems to be nothing but scapegoating and blame, accusations and finger pointing, which is per usual. When do we get this supposed Change?
If a biography of Joe Lieberman is ever written, it will focus on September 11th, 2001 as a pivotal date in his political life. For after 9/11 Lieberman became a one issue candidate: Israel. The attacks on New York and Washington D.C. foreshadowed a much worse result that the fanatical Islamic world wishes upon Israel. Each bill and every one of his votes is now callibrated by its impact, however remote, on Israel. I believe his current bluster on a domestic issue is still measured to achieve maximum effect for Israel. In other words, his vote can be had in support of a public option, but it will cost nothing less than affirming Israel's right to continue building settlements, which will derail any attempt at a new peace initiative. The President will sacrifice the public option in order to keep his Middle East peace initiative going. To that extent, Lieberman has influenced health care.
Time that democrats made Leiberman understand that if he follows through then he loses all the privileges he was granted by the dems.  At that time, I thought it was a good faith gesture not to punish Leiberman, but now he threatens to hold up health care reform making an agonizing and disheartening process that much harder and longer.  He needs to know that there will be consequences.
Razor:  You really think Joe Lieberman is his own person. You really believe that he thinks for himself and is not influenced one iota by the 2million dollars he received in campaign funds from those big insurance companies sitting in Connecticut? If you honestly believe that, then you really are naive. Joe Lieberman is looking out for himself and couldn't give a fig's ear about his constituents. he wants something from Harry reid and he is going to do whatever it takes to get what HE wants. That way, he will get more money from his friends at Aetna & Co. Go back to 2006 when he said in his campaign that he believed in healthcare reform, he would work hard to get healthcare reform but now that he is elected he just sticks it to his constituents and does what the insurance companies pay him to do.
And the biggest lie of all “They have WMD’s!”
American lives lost  4,356
Americans Wounded 31,545
Dennis, Columbus, Ohio (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:49 AM)

-----------------------------------------------


I got a bigger one:

"If we don’t stop Ho Chi Minh, all of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific may fall to Communism.
Americans Killed- Over 58,000
Americans Wounded- Over 305,000"

Cheap patio furniture and textile items for sale, made in VietNam and sold at WalMart (where Hillary had a Board of Directors seat)- Priceless
When one is elected to represent the people, is NOT the time to "be his own person." LIEberman is in the back pocket of BIG Insurance.
I guess if the Democrats don't have any facts, just lie. Here they lied about Lieberman. For what reason? Who knows. Then there is the cost of Pelosi's HCR reform bill that is well above a trillion now, but Nancy says it's under $900 billion. Why does she lie? Who knows. I guess that's just what the Democrats and Pelosi do. It just comes natural to them I guess.

Lying Dems (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:37 AM)

I see you got your daily lies from Fox and Limbaugh this morning. I know that's what Fox and Limbaugh do.
It's time to seriously talk cloture.  Years from now when people are not faced with bankruptcy by unforeseen medical bills or run-away medical premiums, or no coverage due to "pre-existing medical conditions", the American people will not care if it passed 60-40 or 51-49.  

Does anyone remember what the scorecard was when Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid passed?  I do not think so!!!!
Back room deals with crooks passing around stolen money and making illegal promises and bribes. Protecting criminals because they are one of their own. Does this describe the local mafia hall? NO it's the US democrat controlled congress.
Does anyone remember what the scorecard was when Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid passed?  I do not think so!!!!
Brian, Longmeadow MA (Sent Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:37 PM)
--------------------------------------------------

No. But we all pay through the snoot for it now.

Medicaid, Medicare, Prescription Benefits and Socialist Security represent THE biggest chunk of gov't spending. Not the Pentagon as the lefties like to scream. Wars come and go. Viet Nam is long over but we are still paying for LBJ's Great Society poverty programs and poverty continues to rise 40 years later.
MEMO TO: Joe Lieberman
FROM: America
RE: Your tenure

Hello, Joe,

You know, we didn't really understand Al Gore's selection of you as VP candidate in 2000 other than to placate the Jewish vote. Personally, I think you had a hand in losing that election.

You left the Democrat Party in 2006. Okay, that was a slap in the face but we understood that it was a politically expedient move.

You backed John McCain for President in 2008. Well, that was pushing the envelope. You really expect to maintain respect in the Democratic Party after that? But we forgave you. You caucus with us and John McCain is the least insane member of the Republicans. We respect him. Okay, you can keep your chairmanship on the Domestic Security Council.

2009. You threaten to filibuster health care reform after several failed attempts. You object to the public option. You want to kill the bill before it ever reaches the floor? You think maybe Lincoln and Nelson or Bayh will join you in this folly? Are you nuts? You think you will get yet another pass for this?

You will not. You should declare yourself a Republican now. Join the 'Party of NO' Get out of town. You have used up your political capital and you must now face the consequences that Judas faced. Because that is what you are: a Benedict Arnold, a turncoat. We are done with you, sir.
So Better RED and soon to be dead. I guess you won't be picking up any social security benefits when you retire and you will be buying your own insurance when you are 65.  Good for you.
Schmuck.
I think anyone voting against healthcare for Americans.
Need to give up theirs and buy it on your own why should American taxpayer
pay for Healthcare for our employees Senators ,Teachers or the rest
It's all about "I've got mine" shame on you. How many anti health care
reformers on Medicare are people who never worked but are on their Spouses benefits?  
Lieberman is an opportunistic parasite.
Just think folks, he could have been our Vice President not so long ago!!!!!  E-gads!!!!!! What was Al Gore thinking?


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