brainrow

Tomorrow is primary election day in Connecticut, and right now it looks like Senator Joe Lieberman will lose the Democratic nomination to Ned Lamont. I think Lieberman hurt himself by declaring that, if he loses, he will run as an independent. That kind of talk doesn’t charm a lot of Democratic primary voters, but Lieberman seems to be targeting Republicans who want a rubber-stamp for Bush war policies and Democrats who aren’t paying any attention.

Lamont is challenging Lieberman mostly because of his continuing support for the war in Iraq, and his uncritical endorsement of the administration’s handling of the war.

In all honesty, I don’t know what we should do now in Iraq. We shouldn’t have invaded, but it’s too late to fix that now. I worry that simply packing up and leaving will leave a lawless state like Afghanistan — a sanctuary for the worst kinds of extremists — but it might be better than the current policy: do what fails until it works.

Because I’m full of uncertainty, I don’t want to see Lieberman defeated just because he supports the war. No, I want to see him defeated because he’s incapable of learning from experience, and because he scolds Democrats for daring to think there’s got to be a better way.

If Lieberman loses tomorrow’s primary, he’s still got his independent race in November, and if he wins that, probably a switch to whichever party has the majority in the Senate, in hopes of getting some nice committee assignments.

Via Colorado Jyms: If Lieberman loses big, Gary Hart says we should look for an October Surprise:

Depending on the fate of Senator Joe Lieberman on Tuesday, it should come as no surprise to anyone when (not if) the Bush administration announces a dramatic plan to exit Iraq sometime before the Congressional elections this fall.

…

Since, with precious few exceptions, political careers trump principle, and since the cabal of neoconservatives and the religious right intend to govern forever, the genius Karl Rove will concoct a patently phony Iraq exit strategy.