Woe is Joe

If you follow American politics at all, you'll know that today is primary day in Connecticut and that Joe Lieberman is facing one of his toughest challenges ever from a guy named Ned Lamont who is widely supported by the netroots as the antiwar candidate. The only problem with that belief is that Lamont, while opposing the Iraq war (unlike Lieberman), certainly supports the current Israel/Lebanon war. So, he's not exactly as 'left' as some people seem to hope he is.

Now, after months and months of postings by every prominent left-wing progressive Democratic blogger encouraging Democrats to support Lamont ad nauseum, one would think that today's vote would finally bring an end to the whole affair - no matter who wins. Not so. If Lieberman wins, the grief and anger on sites like Daily Kos will go on for months. If Lamont wins, they'll all be celebrating. But just wait until Lamont actually takes up the job. If he, like Barack Obama, makes one wrong move his saviour status will be brought down several notches as the so-called left expresses serious disappointment that all of their hard work created yet another Dem who just toes the party line. That's what happens when you pin your hopes on one person who you believe will do exactly what you want him to because you sent him $10 when he was campaigning.

I've often expressed my disdain over this overwhelming attention given to the Lieberman/Lamont race because, no matter who wins, the outcome will not change the number of Democratic senators. IMHO, much of the energy given to defeating Lieberman would have been better spent on helping Democrats who are up against Republican challengers in November because if the left wants Bush impeached, they need to have control in Congress. So, while a Lieberman defeat might act as a symbolic victory of the so-called left against conservative senators like Lieberman, in reality it won't add up to much more than that. It's not as if the Democrats in power all ought to be living in fear that they too could be challenged because Lieberman is far more right-leaning than most of them, so there aren't that many Dem targets at risk besides him. He's the fall guy.

Today, while everybody's busy antcipating the results of the vote, Lieberman is accusing the Lamont campaign of hacking his website!. Oh, the drama. Right until the very end.

The Lieberman campaign said it blamed "political opponents," for the cyberattack, though it offered no evidence for the accusation. Campaign Manager Sean Smith said he has asked the local U.S. Attorney's office and the Connecticut Attorney General's Office to investigate.

"We call on Ned Lamont to make an unqualified statement denouncing this kind of dirty campaign trick and to demand whoever is responsible to cease and desist immediately," Smith said in a statement. "Any attempt to suppress voter participation and undermine the voting process on Election Day is deplorable and has no place in our democracy."

Makes you wonder where Joe was when the Republicans stole the last two presidential elections. Whoops. I forgot. He was busy kissing Bush.

Regardless, this day can't come to an end fast enough for me and I hope the so-called progressive bloggers won't spend the next three months analyzing the results of this race to death because I can barely stand to even read those sites anymore. This Lieberman/Lamont obssession needs to end soon for the sake of all of the other Democrats out there who are hoping to defeat Republican candidates in their districts. Yes, people can chew gum and walk at the same time. But when you have one helluva big gob of gum in your mouth that's diverting your attention, the walking part just becomes a major annoyance.

Update: You can follow the results of the voting here.