Get Under the Bus, Joe

Radical Leftists and assorted nuts have been waiting for something to smile about.

They've hung their hopes on a laundry list of non-scandal scandals and anti-Bush measures. They've desperately tried to land the lethal blow that would knock out the Republicans.

Even with the massive liberal media machine at their disposal, the Dems just haven't been able to pound that final nail in the Bush administration's coffin.

The Valerie Plame thing fizzled. Karl Rove wasn't frog-marched out of the White House.

Russ Feingold's move to censure President Bush went down in flames.

The "domestic spying" brouhaha went nowhere.

Dems suffered the stinging defeat of seeing President Bush get his nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Things haven't gone their way.

But now it appears that the radical Left may finally score a victory.

Joe Lieberman may lose his primary battle to Ned Lamont.

Where have all Joe's friends gone? George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, and Norman Lear jumped ship and joined the far Left Lamont juggernaut.

They've thrown him under the bus; but it's not just Lieberman that they're rejecting. The radical Leftists are sending a message to all of the less wacky Democrats.

GET OUT!

From The New York Times:

With only three days left to reverse the course of the Democratic primary race, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is scaling back on the ambitious ground operation that his supporters had hoped would pull him past his challenger, Ned Lamont, in Tuesday’s election, people affiliated with the campaign said.

Mr. Lieberman, slipping badly in recent polls, still has solid organizational support. Major unions are planning phone banks on his behalf. Firefighters are taking the day off to drive older voters to polling stations. Black churches are distributing literature focusing on some of the historically most reliable Lieberman supporters, in the belief that the more Democrats show up to vote, the better his chances are.

But in the waning hours of the most closely watched Democratic primary in the nation, Mr. Lieberman, a three-term incumbent, appears to be ceding some tactical ground to his opponent in favor of running new advertisements emphasizing his message that voters should see him for more than his vote to authorize the war in Iraq.

People affiliated with the campaign said it had dropped plans for a far-reaching — and expensive — get-out-the-vote effort that would have added as many as 4,000 new workers and volunteers to the campaign in its final days.

...By downsizing the large-scale ground operation, which analysts said could have added at least five percentage points to his support, the Lieberman campaign seemed to be indicating that Mr. Lamont’s lead had grown too wide to be overcome by phone calls and door-knocking alone.

How does a man go from being his party's nominee for Vice President to getting booted out in a primary in less than six years?

What's changed?

Did Lieberman morph into Tom DeLay when I wasn't looking?

Why is Lieberman being targeted for ouster by the liberal elite?

It's Iraq, stupid!

That issue has become the litmus test by which a candidate's worthiness is judged.

Rich and famous Dems are having a collective hissy fit over Iraq, as well as anyone and anything in agreement with George W. Bush.

So, they've decided to reject Joe Lieberman because he hasn't marched in lockstep with the fringe element of his party on the Iraq issue.

Lieberman has had the intelligence and the decency to not buy into the "Bush lied, people died" party line.

As a result of Lieberman's refusal to betray his principles, the loony Left has unleashed its anger at the man they once wanted to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

With Mr. Lamont suddenly 13 percentage points ahead in a polling survey from Quinnipiac University released Thursday, his advisers expressed cautious excitement about the chances of success of their relatively new political machine, a coalition of the disenchanted, anchored by the support of several influential unions, each with political grievances against Mr. Lieberman going back years. The Quinnipiac poll of likely Democratic primary voters had a margin of sampling error of three percentage points.

I'm always suspicious of such dramatic shifts in polls, unless there's an obvious explanation, like the revelation of some sort of major scandal -- a stained blue dress moment.

That's not the case here. No enormous scandal has surfaced. I don't understand why Lieberman continues to drop in the polls so dramatically.

Although Lamont claims that Lieberman is now out of step with the Dems, his voting record shows that he has actually been on board with other Democrats more often during his third term than in his previous two.

The problem is Iraq.

Lieberman dares to differ with the far Left Dems on that issue.

Is he applauded for being a maverick? Of course not.

The wealthy donors and the radical Left bloggers think that he's a traitor because he isn't their puppet.

Dissension of any sort is not allowed.

...Mr. Lamont, with his support from bloggers and his antiwar message, has sometimes been described as the heir to the legacy of Mr. Dean, a former Vermont governor.

The Times isn't slamming Lamont for that. In the world of the far Left, that's a great compliment.

Scary.

...Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, who had campaigned with Mr. Lieberman just days before, became the first prominent Democrat to say he believed his colleague should drop out of the race entirely if he loses the primary by a “significant” margin, which he defined as double digits.

Mr. Lieberman has said he will run on an independent ticket if Mr. Lamont beats him on Tuesday.

Run Joe, Run!

The fact that The Times endorsed Lamont is proof that Lieberman is the superior candidate.

Lautenberg's suggestion that Lieberman potentially should concede to the Dem extremists is disturbing.

Lautenberg appears willing to put the party in the hands of radicals.

If he believes in Lieberman, he should be saying that he'd gladly campaign for him, whatever happens in the primary.

...Union workers backing Mr. Lieberman described their turnout mission as a cultural one.

They dismissed Lamont supporters as upper-income professionals who can afford to focus exclusively on the war, in contrast to lower-income voters more affected by issues like health care policy and the minimum wage.

“The people I talk to out in the street quietly support Lieberman and say, ‘I feel confident with the senator we have,’ ” said Chris Tracy, 46, a firefighter in Fairfield who intends to spend primary day driving Lieberman supporters to the polls.

His union, the International Association of Firefighters, backs Mr. Lieberman.

Lamont is the darling of the glitterati and the other out of touch, spoiled liberal elitists.

I think it's a fair assessment to say that Lamont appeals to the well-off crowd that wants to contribute its money and its votes just to punish Lieberman for supporting Bush's Iraq policy.

They despise Bush so much that they're willing to throw a loyal Dem like Lieberman under the bus.

In addition to some union support, Lamont is getting help from fringe organizations.

Mr. Lamont has also attracted the support of MoveOn.org, the national Web-based political organization with roots in the struggle over Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

The group polled its roughly 50,000 Connecticut members — about the size of the state’s largest labor union — in May and found that 85 percent supported Mr. Lamont, according to Eli Pariser, the group’s executive director.

On Thursday, MoveOn began what it called a distributed phone bank, with volunteers logging onto the Web site for a list of voters in their area to call and reporting back the results.

Nearly all of the organizations supporting Mr. Lamont expect to contact voters on his behalf, and union officials say they will be taking personal time for the campaign on Tuesday.

Together, Mr. Lamont’s forces will fan out across a state that is both the wealthiest in America and home to some of the nation’s poorest inner cities, where the only common political ingredient, Mr. Lamont’s advisers say, is distaste for the Iraq war.

“It may or may not work,” said Mr. Swan, Mr. Lamont’s campaign manager. “I don’t know.”

MoveOn.org supports Lamont.

Need I say more?

These nuts are angry, livid, because Joe Lieberman dared to take a principled stand and chose to do what he considers to be right.

Not exactly a big tent party, is it?

The rabid anti-Bush/Iraq Dems may score a victory on Tuesday by giving the nomination to Lamont; but in the long run, those results could work against them.

First, both Lieberman and Lamont are running as Dems, at least for the time being. The Connecticut seat is safely in the Dem column. Why pick this battle, especially if the goal is to regain the Senate?

To cause so much derision among fellow Dems in this race seems counterproductive for the long term. All this contention is splitting the party and highlighting just how divided the factions of the Democrats are.

Second, if the extremists succeed and Lieberman is booted out for Lamont, a MoveOn Lefty lap dog, it will soldify Red State America's impression that the kook fringe has organized to successfully hijack the Democratic Party.

In other words, moderate Dems can take a hike.

That's not a wise move. It won't play well in middle America.

What's the 2008 presidential election going to be? McGovern and 1972 all over again?

A loss for Lieberman does not bode well for the future of the Dems.

As the MoveOn types throw Lieberman under the bus, they're actually throwing the Democratic Party under it, too.

Very short-sighted.