Blogger Aims to Dump Breast Cancer Spokesperson

Bloggers are getting increasingly passionate about the raging health care debate in the United States and it looks like Independent Senator Joe Lieberman’s wife has become the centre of negative attention from liberals in the Blogosphere. Jane Hamsher, a prominent liberal blogger in the US, has called on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to fire its spokeswoman, Hadassah Lieberman, because of what her husband thinks about President Barack Obama’s health care reform initiative. Lieberman, formerly a Democrat, is a centrist senator who has consistently opposed the more extensive universal health care package—including a publicly-run insurance system—that liberal Democrats have so keenly supported. In fact, the Democrats need 60 votes in the senate to block a Republican filibuster and delay tactics, but Lieberman has been reluctant to help the government avoid this situation.

It would appear that Hadassah Lieberman’s only transgression as spokesperson for one of the most prominent breast cancer foundations in the world is that her husband holds views that are unpalatable to liberal supporters of health care reform. But this is enough for Hamsher to write on her blog that Mrs. Lieberman’s presence represents a conflict of interest. To be fair, Hamsher’s impassioned response is not surprising. The blogger has had to battle breast cancer on three separate occasions. Hamsher believes that Mr. Lieberman represents the interests of wealthy, private insurance companies that fervently oppose President Obama’s reforms, while the senator’s wife has also been keen to represent the interests of major pharmaceuticals, rather than ordinary Americans seeking affordable health care.

This is not the first time that bloggers have gone after the Liebermans. Washington Post’s columnist and blogger Ezra Klein reportedly wrote that Senator Lieberman’s opposition to extensive health care reform and a public option was tantamount to “directly causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people.” The blogger has since removed the word “directly” from his post.