Politics Lieberman’s Last Day as a Democrat?
As Dan noted below, tomorrow is the Connecticut primary, which is being billed as a watershed moment for the Democratic Party (and, more so, for the liberal blogosphere).
The primary has been the talk of the netroots for months. When I was in Las Vegas back in June writing about the Yearly Kos blogger convention, Markos Moulitsas, probably the most widely read liberal blogger in the country, essentially bet his prestige on a netroots victory over Lieberman, telling the crowd in no uncertain terms: “Liberman is going to lose.”
I saw Markos’s bet as a play for clout as much as an act of political retribution against pro-war Lieberman, and I wrote that Moulitsas and the liberal blogosphere were due for a huge clout-perception-payoff if the prediction of a Lieberman loss proved true.
It looks like it’s going to prove true tomorrow. Polls are showing Lieberman is likely to lose the primary to anti-war and netroots-backed Ned Lamont, a scenario that would force Lieberman to either abandon his long career in the Senate or run in the general election as an Indepentent. And Dan Balz of the Washington Post is now previewing the potential clout payoff for the netroots this way:
A victory by businessman Ned Lamont on Tuesday would confirm the growing strength of the grass-roots and Internet activists who first emerged in Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. Driven by intense anger at President Bush and fierce opposition to the Iraq war, they are on the brink of claiming their most significant political triumph, one that will reverberate far beyond the borders here if Lieberman loses.
One more day until we find out what actually happens. In the meantime, for Lamont vs. Lieberman addicts, some links:
Washington Post on Lieberman’s big speech.
Hartford Courant, via The Note, on possibilities for the morning after.
The Note itself on why the case against Leibarman is sui generis (and therefore maybe not the “watershed” people think it is).
Chicago Tribune on voters abandoning Lieberman.
Kagan on why Lieberman is the “last honest man.”
Salon on why “it is hard to overstate what a profound and monumental upset it will be if Ned Lamont defeats Joe Lieberman.”
Dan lots of your fans love the politician name denfinitions you do. Santorum was a good start. Let's all do what we can to get new definitions out there -
Lieberman - noun - A clot of blood than forms on an infant's penis if the Rabbi doesn't suck the blood away quick enough. -- The Rabbi used his tongue to dislodge the Lieberman that had formed on the penis. (There are three stages required for the performance of a ritually correct circumcision in Jewish law: the removal of the foreskin; the tearing of the underlying membraene so as to expose the glans completely; and the sucking away of the blood, m'tsitsah)see- http://www.sexuallymutilatedchild.org/mohel.htm