Lieberman and Lamont
Political Wire: In Connecticut, Lieberman Leads by Ten Points
It seems almost certain to me that Lieberman will win this election, and I think the whole Lieberman/Lamont thing is the most important election story of 2006.
The ‘progressives’ and ‘net-roots’ won their victory in the primary by beating Lieberman, and in the doing greatly hurt their parties political chances, both in Connecticut and beyond, beyond both in location and probably in time.
Their are some obvious downsides of course. If Lieberman wins he will probably work with the Democrats a fair bit, but less than he would have before. He will be less loyal and probably even more outspoken. He has enough prominence and the media mantle of ‘the centrist’ to ensure that he will always have the ability to be heard, and will be unlikely to follow the Democrats script when he doesn’t want to.
There are other negatives as well of course.
I am sure that their are many people who want a muscular foreign policy, support of Israel and a ’stay the course’ solution for Iraq but otherwise support many liberal positions. The Lieberman/Lamont contest says that the former views are no longer welcome in the Democratic party. I think that this message will be recieved by the electorate and it will resonate for a long time to come.
It is looking increasing less likely that Democrats will be able to take control of either the house or the senate this year, I think that the Connecticut race is a part of that. More signifigantly probably is that this race will make it increasingly difficult for Democrats to escape their ‘branding’ as being a bunch of wusses.
So I hope the netroots are happy. Partisan Republicans sure are.
Lamont won the primary based on drumming up the “no war” moonbats. He didn’t win it on what he stands for, but what he doesn’t. It reminds me a lot of Howard Dean’s aborted run, when it comes down to it.
I’m not convinced that if Joe wins he won’t become the “Independant Democrat” from Connecticut. I’m sure, should he win the election, that the powers that sit on the left side of the aisle in the Senate will again embrace him as quickly as possible. Especially if the “seat count” gets closer this time around.
I have a lot of respect for Joe Lieberman. He believes strongly in what he campaigns on. But he did lose and election and the proper thing to do at this point is to bow out gracefully and maybe start planning in two years to run in another state slightly less populated with moonbats.