Well that's that. Lieberman is saying, as clearly as it could possibly be said, that he will stop the current Senate HCR bill from becoming law by voting against cloture if it were presented for a final vote to go to conference committee.
Full stop.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters today that he would in fact filibuster any health care bill he doesn't agree with--and right now, he doesn't agree with the proposal making its way through the Senate.
"I told Senator Reid that I'm strongly inclined--i haven't totally decided, but I'm strongly inclined--to vote to proceed to the health care debate, even though I don't support the bill that he's bringing together because it's important that we start the debate on health care reform because I want to vote for health care reform this year. But I also told him that if the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage. Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill."
No wiggle room in that statement. Lieberman clearly has no qualms about making himself the person single-handedly responsible for stopping Obama's health care reform efforts in their tracks.
There is not much we can do about it. I know the immediate reaction will be: "strip him of his chairmanship!" However, to do that immediately would require 60 votes, and we know that effort would be fruitless. We could threaten to strip Lieberman's chairmanship in January 2011 before the new Senate is sworn, but that's a long ways away, and I doubt it would be seen as a credible threat since we don't even know if Reid will be re-elected and resume his duties as majority leader.
So, the Senate HCR bill isn't going to pass, at least not in its current form. If we want a bill to become law, Senate Democrats will need to introduce an amendment that garners 60 votes and that changes it to Lieberman's satisfaction.