More Arrests in Lieberman’s Office

Last Thursday, nine protesters were arrested for refusing to leave the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Today, six more were hauled away, Roll Call reports.

CodePink** helped organize both sit-ins, protesting Lieberman’s threat to filibuster the health care reform bill. Joan Stallard, a CodePink member who watched Tuesday as police carted off her colleagues, accused Lieberman of accepting money from the insurance industry and thus voting in the interests of those companies.

The industry itself seems to be wary of that alleged connection between donations and political favor. Although Lieberman ranks 11th among sitting senators in lifetime industry donations, this year that ranking has slipped to 62nd, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Editor’s note: Lieberman’s been enough of a thorn in the Democrats’ collective side that President Obama reportedly just (jokingly) offered to swap him for Israel’s hard-line foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.

**Clarification: It was actually Mobilization for Health Care for All, a single-payer advocacy group, which organized the protest, not CodePink, as originally reported by Roll Call.