Vice President Joe Biden says he’s confident Sen. Joe Lieberman will come around, but says everyone is engaging in “gamesmanship” to get the maximum leverage from the bill.
Today Biden appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” defending his old Senate colleague as “a great guy.”
But Biden said “honest to god” he doesn’t know what is up with Lieberman (I-CT), whose opposition to elements of the health care bill has put Democrats in a major jam. But he added he learned from his own senate service, “never question another man’s motive, question his judgment.”
“I think Joe’s judgment is wrong on this,” Biden said.
But Biden explained it’s just politics he’s seen many times on major legislation.
“Everybody figures their maximum point of leverage is right before the deal is made so you’ve got everybody lining up out there saying, ‘If I’m just willing to hold out now I’ll get everything I want,'” he said.
Former Congressman Joe Scarborough noted that Lieberman has flip-flopped on health care, and Biden laughed, “If we held flip flops against everybody in the Congress we probably wouldn’t have many people there.”
But ultimately, he said, “I’m confident Joe is going to see the light” and vote for the final bill.
“There’s an awful lot of gamesmanship going on right now,” Biden said. “Any Democrat who decides for their own shallow purposes, if that were the case, to scuttle this is … not going to have a friend in the lord.”
