The Lieberman campaign has accused Ned Lamont of flip-flopping on the war in Iraq. On Wednesday, Lamont posted a statement on his website supporting the amendment proposed by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jack Reed (D-RI). The amendment was a non-binding call for the beginning of withdrawal this year. A more forceful amendment, proposed by John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) asked for all troops to leave Iraq by July 1, 2007. The Levin-Reed Amendment got 44 votes; the Kerry-Feingold Amendment 13.

Lamont says his support for withdrawal hasn’t wavered, and that he would have supported both amendments. In his statement, he said the Levin-Reed plan “represents the minimum needed, but will build a Democratic coalition to establish and stick to a plan to end the war.”

Lieberman’s campaign manager, Sean Smith, sees this as a retreat from Lamont’s anti-war stance. "Joe Lieberman has a position on Iraq that people know. It may not be popular, but he continues to hold that position because it is what he believes," Smith said. Lieberman did not support either amendment.

On Tuesday, Matthew Yglesias wondered whether principles like Lieberman’s matter in politics. Today at TPMCafe, Mark Schmitt argues that Lieberman’s problem isn’t that he supported the war, but that he wouldn’t accept Democrats who didn’t.