What Lieberman has wrought

Joe Lieberman's reckless decision to blow up last week's compromise has had exactly the impact many of us predicted. Much of the left has flipped into vicious, angry opposition to the bill. Is that because the Medicare buy-in, a good but limited policy, has disappeared from the bill? Ostensibly. But not really. If you don't believe the bill has cost controls, Medicare buy-in was not an answer to your concerns. If you believe the mandate is bad policy, letting the small slice of exchange-users between 55 and 64 choose public insurance did not answer your fears.

But progressives had compromised plenty already. Single payer became a strong public option, a strong public option became a weak public option, a weak public option became Medicare buy-in, and Medicare buy-in became Joe Lieberman's revenge. Progressive ends are submitting to conservative means, and industry is laughing all the way to the bank. All this amid the first year of a president they elected, a Democratic majority they built.

And it's not just the policy that galls. It's the precedent they fear. Continual compromise with swing senators who are willing to kill good legislation for bad reasons is not a path they want to continue down. They saw the results in the stimulus, a too-small bill that was made yet smaller by, among others, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and Susan Collins. And now, health-care reform is being weakened too, with the subsidies coming in beneath what experts believe we need and the public option erased from the bill.

Worse, it all feels divorced from detectable policy principles. Medicare buy-in was a policy Lieberman supported. It was a compromise that had been communicated to him directly. It emerged from meetings that he was invited to attend. He didn't bother to wait for the Congressional Budget Office's report, or even to offer a coherent argument against the policy. He had the power, he knew it, and he used it. Now he's giving happy, triumphant interviews to any camera and reporter he can find. My personal favorite was his comment to the New York Times. “My wife said to me, 'Why do you always end up being the point person here?’ ” Did Lieberman say this somberly? Did he seem weighed down by the responsibility? No. He was "flashing a broad grin."

A lot of people have made a lot of compromises to protect this process. Ask Rockefeller and Schumer and Brown and Wyden how fun this has been for them. But they grit their teeth because it's important. There are no pearly whites on display as they sit for interviews for front-page profiles in the New York Times.

Lieberman has tossed the process into chaos. But the short-term satisfactions won't overwhelm the long-term judgments. Lieberman is "point person" because he has appointed himself the 60th senator. Every other member of the Democratic caucus could have done the same, but most all have judged the underlying bill more important than their disagreements with it. Lieberman did the opposite, and there's little evidence that he actually had disagreements with the bill so much as dislike for some of its supporters.

And Lieberman, let's remember, is not a lefty blogger. He isn't a pundit or an op-ed columnist. He is the "point man," and by choice. He bears a special responsibility. Atop the shoulders of another man, it would make for a heavy load. But not his. His recklessness has endangered the bill, and through it, many, many lives. He may not be ashamed. But he should be.

Photo credit: By Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

