For these reasons, the Lieberman-is-in-the-pocket-of-the-insurance-lobby explanation isn't entirely convincing.
Another hypothesis is that Lieberman's behavior on health reform reflects his huge political ego and makes sense if he intends to seek re-election in 2012 as a "centrist" Republican.
However, that political positioning argument doesn't hold much water either. If Lieberman is blamed for sabotaging health-care reform, he will solidify Democratic hatred of him, and many Republicans will still distrust his liberal positions on social issues like abortion.
I have a Democratic family member from Connecticut who helped launch Lieberman's political career and who now considers that one of the biggest mistakes of her life. Lieberman might have softened that resentment by helping to pass a strong health-reform law, but his current position only energizes those voters determined to remove him from the Senate.
The Israel Factor
Which brings us to Israel, which arguably has become Lieberman's most treasured priority in his political life.
Mark Vogel, chairman of the pro-Israel National Action Committee, once said, "Joe Lieberman, without exception, no conditions " is the No. 1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in Congress. There is nobody who does more on behalf of Israel than Joe Lieberman."
It was Lieberman's embrace of neoconservative ideology and his aggressive support for wars against Israel's Muslim enemies, the likes of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, that led Connecticut Democrats to deny Lieberman the Senate nomination in 2006 and prompted his successful run as an Independent.
Partly because Obama opposed the Iraq War, Lieberman went on the stump for Republican John McCain in 2008, even questioning Obama's patriotism.
Standing with McCain in August 2008, Lieberman called the election a choice "between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not.'
Since the start of Obama's presidency, Israel's hawkish Likud government has made no secret of its concern that Obama might pressure it into making territorial and other concessions to the Palestinians and Syria to secure a Mideast peace agreement.
In Washington, the still-influential neocons also have been demanding that Obama continue Bush's belligerent policies and side with Israel in a hard-line approach to Iran.
In that sense, Lieberman and the neocons have much in common with Republicans, such as Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, who declared in July that "If we're able to stop Obama on this [health reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."
A broken Obama could be easier to manipulate regarding Mideast peace talks and Iran.
In recent months, Washington's neocons hectored Obama about escalating the war in Afghanistan and crowed about their success when Obama agreed recently to dispatch 30,000 more troops.
Now, the neocons see their chance to complete Obama's transformation into a more articulate version of George W. Bush, making Obama a President who can sell their pro-war positions with much more polish and class.
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