Ned Lamont Wins CT-Sen Democratic Primary

Tuesday, August 08, 2006  -  reddit

Up until this point, I have been willing to give Joe Lieberman every bit of the respect he has earned in his long career in public service. He has lost the Democratic Primary election for Connecticut's representative to the Senate to Ned Lamont. From this point forward, every Democrat must support the choice of the people of Connecticut. I will not speak badly of Joe as long as he congratulates Ned Lamont for being chosen by his state to represent his party, and then either steps aside gracefully, or campaigns on Ned's behalf for the general election later this fall.

But we all know that won't happen. Chris Mathews has been saying all evening that an unimpeachable source within Lieberman's campaign has said that Lieberman will be running as an independent, no matter how badly he loses. We'll have to wait a few hours and see what really happens.

If he follows through with his threats, then we need to strongly consider whether or not Lieberman has gone from spirited candidate with differences to desperate enemy looking for power. It could very well be more difficult to beat Lieberman as an Independent than it will be to knock over many of the vulnerable House Republicans this year. And let's face it, Joe is not a Democrat anymore. He's going to join another party just to keep his seat of power. He is going to be fighting against the Democratic party, trying to take a sure seat away from our party. He will be, in a sense, the enemy. How else could you possibly describe a member of another political party fighting the Democratic party for a seat?

Joe made a good run, and if he is actually a real Democrat, and not Zell Miller 2.0, then he needs to congratulate our guy, and support him fully through the general election. I would have done the same for Lieberman if he had won, but he lost. Connecticut Democrats picked somebody else, and our party needs to back their play.

Update: 11:22pm
Lieberman has already gotten on national televisoin and sworn to file his papers for an Independant run tomorrow. In this time when the Democratic party is on the verge of winning enough seats to take over the House, one of our own is now fighting against us to take a Senate seat from our party. Pathetic. Somewhere, Tom DeLay is smiling.

Technorati tags: Ned Lamont, Joe Lieberman