A few days back, Jackson Williams posted a piece at the Huffington site about Senator Biden's presidential aspirations. In it, he mentions Biden's vote in favor of the new bankruptcy law that was enacted on April 20, 2005. He adds this:
You see, it turns out the average income of folks who file bankruptcy in this country is less than $30K; not the Burt Reynolds' type millionaires gigging the system that we all heard about when this bill was debated. Also, the vast majority of bankruptcy filers do so because of massive medical bills, a job layoff, or both. I've never filed bankruptcy, but like the man from Hope, Arkansas I am moved by those demographics. Not so our Joe, apparently, although another Democratic Joe, by the name of Lieberman, joined his Connecticut colleague Chris Dodd in voting against the bill on final passage. Honors for them (emphasis added).
Let's take a look at Lieberman's record and see if he deserves the "honors" Mr. Williams wants to give him. (Hint: He doesn't.)
The bill that became the new bankruptcy law was not born in 2005, the year it was enacted and became effective. Rather, it had a longer than usual legislative life, having been first introduced in the House in late 1997. There were some changes over the years, but the various bills were essentially the same on the main points, those being the provisions that most screwed over the ordinary citizens of this country.
So what was Mr. Lieberman's record?
-- In the 105th Congress, Lieberman voted for H.R. 3150 (Record Vote No. 284).
-- In the 106th Congress, Lieberman voted for H.R. 833 (Record Vote No. 5).
-- In the 107th Congress, Lieberman voted for H.R. 333 (Record Vote No. 236).
There was no Senate vote in the 108th Congress. Although the House passed H.R. 975, the Senate never took the measure up. It would have been interesting to see how Lieberman would have voted on that one because Bill Clinton was no longer President. He opposed the bill and the only time it was sent to him for signature (the 106th version), he pocket vetoed it.
There was a front page article some months back about how Joe Lieberman casts votes in a way that makes him look like he's on the right side of things when he knows that he will be in the minority. I wish I could find that article but, let's face it, trying to find a specific front page piece on Lieberman is like searching for water in a river. But Lieberman's 2005 vote on the new bankruptcy law can't be anything but political posturing. He knew the bill was going to pass and he must have assumed that people like Mr. Williams wouldn't look any further than the 2005 record.
Honors for Lieberman? I don't think so.