Article By: Matt McQuaid

Senator Joe Lieberman is the embodiment of everything wrong with contemporary politics in the United States. Earlier this week, Lieberman announced that he would filibuster with Republicans if the Senate Democrats don’t drop the public option from their healthcare plan.

Not surprising. According to opensecrets.com, Lieberman has received $297,090 from the pharmaceuticals industry to his campaign committee so far, not to mention $427,644 from the Insurance industry.

This is why real healthcare reform is stalling in the senate: Senators are more committed to the special interests trying to stop healthcare reform from cutting in on profit margins than they are to their constituents.  According to a poll done by Quinnipiac University, 64 percent of Connecticut voters support giving people the option to buy health insurance from a government plan. So why is Lieberman dragging his feet on the public option? Because apparently he thinks that answering to his corporate overlords is more important than providing a social safety net to the people in his own state.

Lieberman has gotten way too comfortable in his seniority in the Senate and apparently thinks that he doesn’t have to answer to voters in his own state anymore. It was bad enough that Lieberman was a staunch proponent of the Iraq war, and it was really bad when he endorsed McCain, but this public option thing is the last straw. Beating his own party in 2006 has made Lieberman think he can stay in office without serving his base. The next time Lieberman comes up for re-election, the state of Connecticut owes it to Lieberman to show him that he’s wrong.