Joe Lieberman may go on to win his Senate seat as an independent, and we hope he does. But the Connecticut primary race was about the future of the Democratic party as much as it was about the future of his seat. And while the margin may have been small, Lieberman’s loss was big.
He is an 18-year incumbent. He was his party’s candidate for vice president six years ago. He is squarely in the mainstream of his party on most issues. He had the backing of most of the party’s establishment. Yet he lost. The election was close enough that it is possible to think that Lieberman could have won if he had started campaigning earlier, or had kept in closer touch with his constituents. But the question posed to Democrats was whether they could tolerate a man who, while toeing the liberal line on abortion and taxes, supported the Iraq War and was willing to work with a Republican president. The answer is no.
And it is going to stay no whatever happens to Lieberman. If he wins as an independent, he will never again have the moderating influence on the Democrats he once did. We wish the Democrats weren’t going in this rejectionist direction, but it’s their party and their choice. Since the race now pits Lieberman against Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, a creature of fevered liberal bloggers, and a Republican candidate who is a non-conservative nonentity, we’re backing Lieberman. We hope this experience, and his formal independence from the Democratic party, will encourage him to buck the Democrats on more issues than Iraq.
If that happens, the Daily Kos crowd will have succeeded in remaking the Democratic party while reducing the party’s national influence. Life is full of tradeoffs.
