Will LieberCrats Swallow Everything?

At the moment, the debate over LieberCare is dominated by LieberCrats: party-line Democrats who, for the sake of passing any bill, appear willing to swallow everything Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson want to force down our collective throats. In the blogosphere, the most aggressive LieberCrats are Ezra Klein and Nate Silver.

So here's a challenge to the LieberCrats: is there anything you won't swallow from the insurance and drug companies in the name of "reform"?

This is not a theoretical question, because there are significant differences between the Senate and House bills which must be resolved in conference committee. Lieberman, Nelson, and other LieberCrats are threatening to kill the whole bill if they don't get everything their way. They've used this blackmail technique brilliantly for weeks, and the LieberCrats have accepted every single ransom payment.

In terms of not swallowing, I'm not talking about weak rhetorical complaints or meaningless vows to "fix it later." I'm talking about line-in-the-sand, grab-your-torches, to-the-barricades opposition - the kind that translates into "vote no even if it kills the bill."

Because if you won't draw any lines, that means you have no principles; you're just party hacks. And in that case you shouldn't mislead yourselves or anyone else by calling yourselves "progressives."