What is Lamont doing at his vacation home? Shouldn't he be campaigning?

He's got to hit back a lot harder than that. I guess now is when we get to see whether he's up to the challenge of putting Lieberman away.

Someone needs to lean on Reed, Dodd, the Clintons and others to publically demand selfish-Joe deal with the fact that "there are no second chances in politics," act like a real Democrat and step aside.

Public denunciations will only give Lieberman more resolve. If Lieberman is trying to say he's above "political parties" than public chastisement won't work. It has to be dealt with on a personal and friendly level. If he's still in after a week or two, then gloves should come off.

Burn out, schmurn out. He wanted in, deal w--

Oh, blow it out your ass, Howard...

Lamont just won an upset victory against a sitting Senator so whatever he's doing it's working. Some supporters want to crush Lieberman immediately which is understandable but it won't happen because going against him directly right now will just fuel his behavior.

More than anyone but Al Gore, Lieberman should have distrusted this administration, yet he decided to go along with a war that was obviously political at its inception and call it bipartisanship. Like his crusade against videogames, this foray into authoritarian conservativism was done to beef up his right-wing bona fides and has deeply damanged the nation, yet he calls it idealism in service to America. He continues to flaunt the will of the voters of Connecticut, which is what got him in trouble in the first place. He's beyond reason, and has been for some time. Two years ago he thought he could be President and now he's trying to save his career.

Lieberman already is the de facto GOP candidate so it's good to just lay back for now and watch the Republicans spin on his behalf. If you need something to do, record Fox News and in October you can make a nifty campaign commercial with Sean Hannity and Fred Barnes talking about that great guy Joe Lieberman and how he's not appreciated by the misguided voters of Connecticut.

"Someone needs to lean on Reed, Dodd, the Clintons and others to publically demand selfish-Joe deal with the fact that "there are no second chances in politics'"--ford prefect

I guess that rule doesn't apply to Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, Adlai Stevenson, Mark Green or Al Sharpton all of whom ran twice and lost. If Lieberman wants to offer his candidacy to the 85% of registered voters in Ct. who did not vote last Tuesday, who the fuck are you, ford perfect, to say he can't. Let all the voters decide.

CT voters know a sore loser!

Loserman can run a Rovian campaign from the gutter. Voters are no longer fooled that easily. Ned Lamont has a well run campaign organization that just pulled off an unprecedented upset against an incumbent 3 term senator. Lamont was trailing Loserman by 50% a few months ago. No one even heard his name. Lamont energized CT voters. Thousands changed their affiliation to become Dems. They'll gear up and will be well prepared for Nov with a broader CT Dem party machinery working with them. They have the right message in sync with the majority of CT and even America.

This Nov Loserman will be humiliated by the smart voters of CT.

Don't be ridiculous and think of Lieberman as a Democrat, independant or otherwise. Lieberman was a Dem until he decided he wasn't after he lost the Democratic Primary. I guess it hasn't occured to you that the reason you have a primary is to select the Democrat who will run in the General Election. It has a longstanding tradition in politics. Democrats run in the primary and if they lose, then they bow out and support the person who won. If they choose to continue running under a different label, then they forfiet their claim to the label of Democrat. It's actually the law in CT. Lieberman will appear as an (I) on the ballot not an Independant Dem. Many states actually have laws against this type of bastardly behavior. The other states who don't probably just assumed that no one would be so rude as to try it and that no one would vote for such a candidate.

Lamont would have supported Lieberman if he won. Even the head blogofascist Kos pledged to support Lieberman if he won. Now if Lieberman wanted to only half-heartedly support Lamont and if you want to try and convince me that Lieberman would be better for Dems. Fine. But the fact that you would support a traitor to the Democratic Party means that neither you nor Lieberman have the right to call yourself a Democrat. So please refrain from using Independant and Democrat together as a proper noun. It's a lie and makes you look silly.

You fantasy life is very vibrant you Democratic Traitor.  In the Democratic party, we support those who win the primary.  It's called Democracy and how we choose who we want to represent us in the General Election.

And way to appropriate Republican talking points on Kos.  You learn that from Joe?

 Traitor

I'm not sure but I think you're trying to make a distinction between the Democratic primary and the general election - that because Connecticut is an overwhelmingly Democratic state the Democratic nominee is the likely winner in the general election, and that Lieberman deserves a chance to have everyone in Connecticut vote for him, not just Democrats in a primary.

If so, why did Joe Lieberman run in the Democratic primary in the first place? Why not just go straight to the general as an independent, which he could have done? The answer, obviously, is that he thought he could win the primary. He didn't, and yet he goes on.

Read the quote again: "He continues to flaunt the will of the voters of Connecticut."

Everyone in Connecticut has the same opportunity to vote in a Democratic primary. If some of them choose to register as Republicans instead, or are not registered, or simply don't vote, that is their choice. But they are not voters because voters vote, and elections are determined only by voters. That's democracy.

So there is no doubt, I meant registered Democrats who voted in the Connecticut primary of 2006. They are the only ones who chose to matter, after all. Most of those people voted for Lamont. There will be a general election in the fall, and if Ned Lamont defeats Alan Schlesinger that will also be the will of the voters in that particular election.

But Lamont will also have to defeat Lieberman again, even though Lieberman drew less support in the Democratic primary that he himself chose to participate in. Under the rules of the general election he can do this, but it's wrong. The man either has no scruples or he's a raging egomaniac - both, I think. He calls himself a Democrat yet doesn't believe in democracy.

I've been standing the whole time.

1) It's pretty clear to me that the intent of the CT primary and petitioning rules is to prevent a candidate from claiming two affiliations in the same race. If the CT legislature wanted it to be the case that a candidate got two bites at the apple, they would have set the petition date much later, say a month after the primary.

2) Lieberman cannot continue to refer to himself as an "independent democrat." He's left the party. He can't run under a democratic affiliation. He's CT for Lieberman candidate.

3) This is not the same situation as any of the candidates on your list. If Lieberman wanted to offer his candidacy to the entire voter population of CT, there was an easy way to do that. Run as an independent from the git-go. The path he's chosen makes it very clear that his concern is not letting all the voters decide. His concern is hold on to his (not CT's) seat.

No union leaders will undermine the Democratic nominee for Senate simply b/c he's wealthy. Not in CT or any other state. Ever.

They certainly don't have any reason to "not trust" him. He'll be better for working Americans than Lieberman. He definitely wouldn't have voted for cloture on Alito, and I doubt he would have voted for the bankruptcy bill.

Who cares who the formerly Democratic mayor of NYC endorses? Every major current Dem will endorse Lamont.

If he wins this year, he will never again be elected as a Dem. He should drop out and run for CT Gov in 2 yrs as a Dem if he really wants to do something good for the Dems (other than apparently telling the rest of them to STFU, as you so eloquently put it).