Lieberman plays this BS game all the time. He acts like a reasonable guy, excoriating Dems as extreme, then votes with them anyway. He always does this. It was especially galling with the Clinton impeachment conviction vote. He never let a day go by saying Clinton was a bad man, and that he, Joe, was very devout, and couldn't stand all the lying.
Except he voted to aquit, and never explained why. For all his devoutness, he's just a scummy pol. I'm sick of his BS. Retire, already!

The GOP missed an opportunity here. McConnell should have designated ten Republican senators -- or even more -- to invoke cloture. Then Webb, Lieberman, Tester, et. al. vote against and kill the thing outright. Best part: no risk if the off-the-reservation Dems flip-flop and it passes, because it's never getting throught the House anyway. Idiot Reid hung a curveball over the fat of the plate and the Reps stood there looking at it. How would Obama's grand re-election strategy have recovered from his own party refusing to "pass this bill now?"

You are taking a big risk there, hoping one or two guys have the principled stance and do actually vote against the caucus. Reid would work those guys hard until he bribed them so much they couldn't refuse.

I agree, but lack of imagination seems to be a hallmark of Senate Republicans and their leadership. Perhaps Reid could have pulled a rabbit out of his hat and passed the bill, but at the cost of exposing so-called moderate Democrats to be the hypocrites they surely are. More likely the whole thing would have been killed by a majority vote and Obama and Reid would have lots of egg on their faces.

By the same token, Republicans have stupidly left themselves exposed as seemingly being defenders of the wealthy, when many of said wealthy are their political enemies and have heavily funded Obama and Co. Why not support a temporary tax on the super rich, structured to catch the Hollywood and Wall Street liberal elite? Of course it won't help the economy (good, for now!) and would be repealed immediately under a Republican administration after it had been shown to be a jobs killer and a counterproductive tax measure raising revenue. But in the meantime Republicans would defang the spurious claim that they are the defenders of the wealthy and well connected.

Just thinking out of the Republican box.

Can we please stop calling Joe Lieberman a moderate!! He votes down the line liberal unless it's something about Israel/National Security. His votes allowed passage of Obamacare and the first Obama Stimulus, and now his voting for stimulus part 2!