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Some thoughts on Lieberman’s loss

I’ve been skating around to a few lefty blogs and political message boards and noticed a popular theme of sorts regarding Joe Lieberman, and that is that it’s Joe’s fault the party is so polarized right now, and he only has himself to blame. I responded to one such assertion at a message board I frequent, and I’ll repost it here with modifications to fit the blog:

This is the fault of the Nutcase Intolerant Wing of the Democratic party. The party faithful in CT bumped out virtually the only sane Democrat left in the Senate – why? His biggest sin was that he didn’t hate Bush, and he stood by his vote in favor of the Iraq war. Let’s not mention the fact that he actually has criticized Bush on a number of occasions regarding how things are going in Iraq – he just chose not to flavor his every word with venom and some of the other forms of hateful rhetoric that has become so fashionable for folks in the Democratic party to do. My God – the guy’s a moderate and doesn’t hate Bush. And he doesn’t want to cut and run from Iraq. Therefore,

HE MUST GO!

The funny thing about this is this is coming from people who have complained bitterly about how President Bush has “divided” this country, how “hateful” Karl Rove is, and who exclaim “we need a new tone in Washington!” Yet some of the most hateful, meanspirited, nasty attacks were launched against Lieberman by these same people. Photoshopped pictures of him in blackface, Photoshopped pictures of him on his knees unzipping the President’s pants eagerly, attacks on him because of his support for Israel, pathetic attempts at casting him as an administration shill …. all of this for what? Lamont supporters essentially “Swift Boated” Joe Lieberman. I guess to the far left it’s “ok” to do that as long as it’s liberals who are are doing it.

The Cindy Sheehan [1]/Michael Moore [2]-esque lunatics last night took control of the asylum. If this wing of the party continues to be ‘successful’ (and it remains to be seen how Hillary and others who want to appear moderate will react to Lamont’s win) then I hope it’s a short-lived ‘success’ because the party going far left as it did in CT will destroy the essence of the Democratic party. What happened to all the classical liberals in the Democratic party who actually used their brains?

Maybe this sounds wacky coming from a partisan Republican. But I used to be a Democrat so I still have a soft spot for the few sane members left in the Democratic party. If I still were still a Democrat this year, I’d no longer be one after watching the way the nutters on the left targeted Joe Lieberman because he refused to advocate a cut and run Iraq policy and because he refused to hate President Bush. Michael Moore [3] and some other wackos on the far left are confirming today that Lamont’s win last night should “send a message” to anyone on the left who supported “Bush’s war” – stop supporting it or “your days are numbered.” Pathetic!

There are things my party has done that I’m not proud of, but one thing – thankfully – it hasn’t done is allowed the fringe fruitcakes to take over. The DNC has allowed that here, and I believe now they’ll find themselves in a pickle over what to do next in terms of ‘supporting’ Lamont or distancing themselves from him and his ‘base’. If they throw their full support behind Lamont and his cut and run approach to Iraq, I hope Republicans – and Joe Lieberman – milk it for all its worth.

ST reader Mwalimu Daudi offers his thoughts [4]:

It is the “day after”, so to speak, and the Connecticut Democratic party is in shambles. They have nominated a candidate who not only has little chance of winning in November, but who also blew a big lead going into the Democratic primary yesterday.

As if this were not bad enough, there is the Jim Crow-esque anti-Semitism [5]and race-baiting [6] of the nutroots who ran his campaign. This almost cost Lamont the nomination, and it most likely will cost him the general election, patricularly when it becomes clear that it will hinder Lamont’s efforts among Republicans and independents. Worst of all, the nutroots will see yesterday’s victory as an endorsement of not only their candidate but of the nutroot’s tactics. Do you really think they will tone it down after winning?

This is Lamont’s Catch-22 – the tactics that helped him squeak by yesterday will hurt him in November. If he moderates his views, the nutroots will eat him alive. If he “stays the course” and continues to play to his racist, anti-Semitic base, the majority of voters in Connecticut will wrinkle their noses in disgust. And if it turns out that someone in the Lamont campaign had anything to do with the shutting down of Lieberman’s website [7], there could be indictments in the near future.

Get ready for the filthiest campaign in history. So far.

Yep. Reminds me a bit of Howard Dean’s rise an eventual fall when running for the Democratic nomination for President.

See also: Dems Move Closer to McGovern’s Losing Formula [8]

Update: John Hawkins [9] has a roundup of quotes from the lefty blogosphere on Lieberman’s loss.

-The AP reports that the DNC is throwing their support behind Lamont [10].