Hartford — U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, called on Tuesday for the recall of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT, over his efforts to block major portions of the federal health care reform legislation now moving through the Senate.

DeLauro, whose district includes New Haven and some surrounding towns, angrily broke an uneasy peace among Connecticut's all-Democratic delegation to the Congress in an interview with POLITICO, the Washington-based political news outlet.

"No individual should hold health care hostage, including Joe Lieberman, and I'll say it flat out, I think he ought to be recalled," POLITICO quoted DeLauro as saying Tuesday.

Connecticut law has no provision for recall of state officials — though the concept has been considered in recent years after a spate of state and municipal corruption scandals — and rules on expulsion from branches of Congress are controlled by the House and Senate themselves.

But DeLauro's comments, along with those of U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st, are a stark departure from the tone of the state's delegation in recent months, as Lieberman has increasingly frustrated reform supporters with his opposition to key facets of the Democratic package, including several that he has supported in the past, like a purchasing exchange for health insurance plans for the uninsured, and a proposal to let those under age 65 buy in to Medicare.

Lieberman is still a registered Democrat despite still-resonant and bitter battles with his party's base since his near-defeat in 2006. And despite vigorous opposition to his recent maneuverings in the health care debate, the Connecticut delegation members have notably refrained from directly criticizing him.

But that could be changing. In an appearance on "The Ed Show" on MSNBC on Monday, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd, said Lieberman's recent statements on health care matters don't "reflect what's happening on the ground in Connecticut."

"It's very disappointing for those of us who have been out there doing the town hall meetings and making the case, and seeing that the public really has stayed with us on this issue, to see the position that he announced over the weekend," Courtney said.

"Which, again, the Medicare buy-in, as you point out, was part of the Democratic platform going back to the Gore/Lieberman campaign. And certainly, it would seem that that was a reasonable attempt to try and get his vote given the fact that he went out and campaigned for vice president on that issue," he said.

In a written statement of his own today, released by his press staff, Lieberman said he would support the "core" of the health care reform proposals moving through the Senate, and rebutted claims that he had "flip-flopped" on issues like the Medicare buy-in, which he supported in less dire fiscal times.

"The process to reach agreement on a bill has often been difficult, but I sense we are now taking significant steps forward to obtain 60 votes on the Senate floor," Lieberman's statement said in part. "I look forward to passing a bill that will give the American people genuine health care reform without impeding our recovery from the current recession or adding to our exploding national debt."

Read the POLITICO story here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30627.html