Lieberman's Break From Democrats Sparks Fury

WASHINGTON (Dec. 14) -- Democrats returned to town Monday seething over Sen. Joe Lieberman's latest break from his old party over health care.

"It's beyond frustration," said Rep. John Larson, a fellow Connecticut lawmaker who heads the House Democratic Caucus across Capitol Hill.

Lieberman, whose opposition to a government-run public health insurance option favored by liberals helped strip that proposal out of the bill, enraged Democrats when he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that he opposed an alternative plan to expand Medicare to people 55 to 64. Concerns over the spiraling cost of the bill would force him to join a Republican filibuster if any type of public option was included in the overhaul, he said.

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Democratic leaders indicated late Monday that they were prepared to drop the proposed Medicare expansion in a bid to get the bill passed by Christmas.

The developments left Democratic aides, who asked not to be named, furious with Lieberman. Marshall Wittman, Lieberman's spokesman, dismissed "the claims of anonymous aides," saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was notified on Friday "that he had problems with the Medicare provision."

Meanwhile, headlines painted Lieberman as "a major problem" for Democrats, and Ezra Klein of The Washington Post wrote that the centrist senator "seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals."

North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Budget Committee, defended Lieberman as acting "completely in a principled way" and said many moderate Democrats like himself also had qualms about allowing younger people on Medicare.

"He vocalized concerns that many were having," Conrad said. "He's been a very good member of the team."

Liberals have accused Lieberman of teaming up with insurance companies that dominate his state's economy. He has denied any quid pro quo, but that hasn't kept progressives from taking out their wrath -- on his wife.

The left-leaning Firedoglake blog called on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to dump Hadassah Lieberman as its "global ambassador" because of "her ties to the same healthcare industry that is actively fighting Congressional healthcare reform." It charged that the senator's wife had lobbied for Pfizer and other drug companies.

The group also sought help from celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, Andie MacDowell and Christie Brinkley to pressure the breast cancer research organization.

If bloggers went ballistic, they had ammunition: a recent video posted on YouTube that showed Lieberman supporting a Medicare "buy-in."

Back in 2000, when he was Al Gore's running mate, Lieberman supported letting those 55 and older without health insurance "buy in" to Medicare. As late as this September, the senator voiced support for expanding Medicare in an interview with the Connecticut Post.

In the video of the interview, Lieberman said: "When it came to Medicare, I was very focused on a group post 50, maybe more like post 55. People who have retired early, or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose their health insurance and they're too young to qualify for Medicare and what I was proposing was that they have an option to buy into Medicare early."

Asked about the video Monday, Lieberman told The Associated Press his comments were made before the Senate health care bill was finalized. The Connecticut independent said the proposed legislation includes health insurance subsidies that would make a Medicare buy-in program redundant.

But at least one Democratic senator appeared to prod Lieberman with his own words.

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, one of the so-called "Gang of 10" progressive and moderate Democratic senators who last week negotiated a deal on the public option that has since been dropped, invoked Lieberman's past statements.

"Sen. Lieberman, it's my understanding, proposed a similar measure very few years ago," she said, "so I'm not sure why he's having a hard time with it today."