So, Joe Lieberman's current whim signals improved prospects for a health care bill. From Washington Post:
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), once a critic of the legislation, appeared to be warming to the $848 billion package after Senate leaders said they were ready to jettison a plan to extend Medicare coverage to uninsured people as young as 55, an idea Lieberman denounced over the weekend. He said Tuesday that he expects to support the bill if that provision is dropped.
That would leave Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) as the only known holdout among the 60 lawmakers who caucus with Democrats. Senate leaders and White House officials were working hard Tuesday to convert the former Nebraska insurance commissioner, who has said he will not support the measure unless it bars the use of public money for abortion.
The final negotiations followed months of debate and compromise on the administration's domestic centerpiece. Liberals fumed over the abandonment of a government-run insurance option, but they did not defect, and as a final vote neared, strenuous efforts to win the support of even a single Republican seemed increasingly unlikely to succeed.
Emerging from a rare White House meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus, Obama said he is "cautiously optimistic" that Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) will be able to unite the party, avoid a Republican filibuster and approve the 2,000-page package, which would come close to attaining the party's long-sought goal of universal medical coverage.
Read more at WashingtonPost.com
This Joe Lieberman character is a piece of work and he is currently running a politicking clinic on the whole Democratic party. Payback for 2006? Probably.