Insult to Injury Over Health Care

A touch of farce is just what the Senate scrimmage needed, and Joe Lieberman, bless his hypocritical heart, provided it at yesterday's White House meeting.

While the President tried to get his dyslexic troops marching in the same direction for a final vote, the Senator from Self-Important Sanctimony made a bid for sympathy from the assembled colleagues he has been holding hostage.

“What’s happening," he said, "is not any fun for me.”

Like the parent killer pleading for mercy as an orphan, Lieberman is now so deep in the two-faced logic that has marked his career he has lost all sight of cause and effect.

Long-time Lieberman watchers will recall his performances in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings when he announced his support and voted no, followed by the Bill Clinton impeachment at which, after denouncing his party's President for "disgraceful" and "immoral" behavior," he cast his ballot for acquittal.

His current 180 on allowing those from 55 to 65 to enroll in Medicare is just the latest flip-flop, which critics attribute to his financial support from health insurers but can just as easily be seen as the result of his pathological need for the spotlight.

If Joe Lieberman is not enjoying having the White House Press Secretary describe as the object of the President's concern "members of the democratic caucus, including independents who caucus with the Democrats," such attentions must be as repellent to him as George W. Bush's State of the Union smooch and the coverage he drew on the campaign trail last year supporting John McCain.

When Lieberman complained yesterday about the pleasure deficit in his life, Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has championed the public option, answered, “You know, Joe, it’s not fun for us either” and the President reportedly joined in to say, “Why don’t we all begin to have some fun?” he said. “Let’s pass the bill.”

Not until Joe Lieberman has squeezed the last bit of TV face time out of the impasse.