Joe's gotta go

Senator Joe Lieberman seems to have lost touch with the people of Connecticut and their needs. Lieberman says he is prepared to filibuster a vote that would allow the Senate to act on a healthcare reform bill with a public health insurance option. He incorrectly referred to it as an entitlement program.

The goal of a public option is to create competition with private insurers. Of course, private insurers would go to almost any lengths to avoid competition that would pressure them to lower their skyrocketing rates. Apparently, Lieberman agrees with them and feels that health insurance rates paid by his constituents in his home state of Connecticut are not too high and no additional competition is needed to make health insurance more affordable.

In Connecticut alone, 330,000 children and adults are uninsured, according to a recent Kaiser Family Institute analysis. Of the uninsured, 90,000 are Hispanic.

We are not talking about the unemployed or destitute. More than 80 percent of the total uninsured people in Connecticut had at least one full time worker or a part time worker in their household.

These are precisely the working majority of Americans across the country that insurance companies have failed to cover.

This is far from the first time Lieberman has shown his disdain for Connecticut voters. After he repeatedly allied himself with Bush Republicans, specifically on the war in Iraq, he lost a Democratic Primary race against a previously unknown opponent.

In the interest of building a firm block in the Senate, the Democratic leadership brought Lieberman back into the fold. But Lieberman is more interested in watching out for his own political health than in solving a critical need for Americans.

Democrats should plan for showing Lieberman the exit door, and, this time, letting it slam shut behind him.