"Joe's gotta go!" union members yelled at a rally on the Green during Thursday's lunch break....
Olsen said he plans to "pray" for Lieberman to change his position. He called health are reform an overriding "moral" issue, not just a "labor" issue."
He called it "a crucial time" for Lieberman ... "How can you say to someone you can wait about life or death? What if it was his mother who passed? What if it was his child that says, 'You have to wait and can't have health care now'? Joe has to reach down into his heart. This is a moral issue."
So was endorsing Lieberman's reelection a mistake?
He said he has no regrets; he prefers to "look forward," not "back."
Yes, who could have possibly predicted that, 15 years after Joe Lieberman last helped kill health care legislation proposed by a new Democratic president, he might try to do so again?
Apparently not Olsen, who seems just as shocked in 2009 as he was in 1994, with a similar refrain from his members ringing in his ears:
"Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Lieberman's health care plan has got to go!" they chanted.
About 40 labor union members, consumer advocates and other disaffected voters attended the brief rally, aimed at convincing the state's junior senator of the depth of the country's health care problem and the need for fundamental reform....
The rally was organized by the Connecticut State AFL-CIO, which represents about 200,000 people. Union President John W. Olsen, who spoke at a brief gathering after the rally outside the First Church of Christ, said the demonstration was intended to counter the heavy lobbying Lieberman and other lawmakers have received from the health and insurance industries....
(from "LIEBERMAN'S STAND ON HEALTH CARE DRAWS PROTEST; 40 AT RALLY PROTEST FOR REFORMS," Hartford Courant (Connecticut), July 29, 1994, MATTHEW DALY)
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