On Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wasn’t sweating the news that Democrats and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) may not be coming through on the Senate health care bill.
Gibbs said he hadn’t seen the reports about Lieberman saying he’d support a filibuster, but added, “I think Democrats and Republicans alike will be held accountable by their constituents who want to see health care reform enacted this year.”
“I haven’t seen the report from Senator Lieberman or why he’s saying what he’s saying,” he said, citing polls showing support for health care. “And we know that if that doesn’t happen, people say they’ll be very disappointed by that, and we think people will make progress to ensure that this gets done.”
Gibbs said President Obama hasn’t been making specific calls yet but, “I’m sure we’ll get involved in due time.”
“The president is working to ensure we get this through,” Gibbs said. “I think we’ve been working through these issues for many months and we will continue to do so to make progress. I think president has been pretty involved in this and as this works its way through we’ll have more to do on it.”
Reporters asked about Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who opposes the public option in any form.
“That’s a better question for Olympia Snowe,” he said. “I don’t know what the dynamics are. I don’t know what the vote count is in the Senate. That’d be a question, too, for Senator Reid.”
