Former Clinton aide Paul Begala doesn't think very highly of Joe Lieberman, or the Connecticut Independent's announcement he'd side with Republicans in filibustering a final health care cloture vote.

Begala, writing a Daily Beast column titled "Traitor Joe":

It's journalistic shorthand to note a politician's party identification and state after his or her name. For example: Jane Doe (D-NY). And so Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is identified as (I-CT). But the “I” does not stand for "Independent." It stands for "Insurance Industry."

Lieberman says he will join a Republican filibuster against President Obama's health-insurance reforms. You could see this coming from a mile away—actually from 15 years away.

In 1993 and 94, Lieberman consistently opposed President Clinton's reform bill—which did not have a public option. In case you're keeping score at home, Lieberman will filibuster the Obama plan, which has a public option, and he opposed the Clinton reform plan, which did not. Anything that protects consumers, it seems, is a bridge too far for Sen. Lieberman...

What he says today is that President Obama is "trying to do too much at once."

Too much at once? Too much at once? Why didn't that occur to Sen. Lieberman when we were fighting a war in Afghanistan, and he was cheerleading for an invasion of Iraq? Too much at once? How about 4,351 dead American heroes who gave their lives in a war that Joe Lieberman didn't think was doing too much?