Dan Balz on the stakes:
A victory by businessman Ned Lamont on Tuesday would confirm the growing strength of the grass-roots and Internet activists who first emerged in Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. Driven by intense anger at President Bush and fierce opposition to the Iraq war, they are on the brink of claiming their most significant political triumph, one that will reverberate far beyond the borders here if Lieberman loses.
An upset by Lamont would affect the political calculations of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who like Lieberman supported giving Bush authority to wage the Iraq war, and could excite interest in a comeback by former vice president Al Gore, who warned in 2002 that the war could be a grave strategic error. For at least the next year, any Democrat hoping to play on the 2008 stage would need to reckon with the implications of Lieberman’s repudiation.
Interestingly, Balz talks up a Gore candidacy. More than anything, he sees this Lamont outcome as sending a message that we are now a legitimate power center that cannot be ignored.
Strategists say the Connecticut race has rattled the Democratic establishment, which is virtually united behind the three-term incumbent’s candidacy, and will force an uneasy accommodation with the newest, volatile power center within the party.
“This sends a message to all Democratic officeholders,” said Robert L. Borosage of the liberal Campaign for America’s Future. “You’re going to have a much tougher Democratic Party.”
That could be felt most acutely by Clinton, who polls show is the early front-runner for the 2008 nomination and who has drawn criticism from what are known as net-roots activists for opposing a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Clinton appears to have gotten the message, as she demonstrated with sharp questioning of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at a Senate hearing on Thursday.
It’s essential that Lamont wins this primary.
I like how Balz claims Lieberman is paying the price for advocating bipartisanship. What he’s really paying the price for is being Bush’s lapdog
as if being bipartisan about a catastrophe was anything to brag about.
to me there is no such critter as bipartisan-ism any more. Not with this WH and what theya re doing to their republican party. Why is there so many republicans leaving their party and running on democratic tickets then? I seriously question those leaving and infiltrating the democratic party. Why are they not standing up for their own party and how wrong they are is my question. NO such thing as bipartisan any more…
Not for the time being, and not since 1995, when the current crop of Rethugs took the House, and used their power to impeach the President.
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BooMan – you beat me to it!
FARMINGTON, CT (WaPo) Aug. 5 — The passion and energy fueling the antiwar challenge to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in Connecticut’s Senate primary signal a power shift inside the Democratic Party that could reshape the politics of national security and dramatically alter the battle for the party’s 2008 presidential nomination, according to strategists in both political parties.
“This sends a message to all Democratic officeholders,” said Robert L. Borosage of the liberal Campaign for America’s Future. “You’re going to have a much tougher Democratic Party.”
That could be felt most acutely by Clinton, who polls show is the early front-runner for the 2008 nomination and who has drawn criticism from what are known as net-roots activists for opposing a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Republicans are already seeking to exploit a possible victory by Lamont as a sign that Democrats are moving too far to the left on national security issues. “They want retreat — under the guise of ‘reducing the U.S. footprint in Iraq,’ ” William Kristol writes in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) said it is a mistake to contend, as the Republicans are doing, that the Democrats have been captured by left-wing, antiwar activists, saying the Connecticut race most of all reflects discontent with Bush rather than an ideological awakening. “This is really about Bush,” he said. “It’s deeper than an antiwar thing.”
Instill fear amongst the general public in the United Staes about MWD, biochemical warfare, anthrax and bird-flu influenza H5N1.
ANSER
Bird Flu Resides Deep in Lungs Preventing Human-to-Human Transmission
TOKYO (Scientific American) 23 March 2006 — To date, roughly 103 people have been infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus–or bird flu. Yet few, if any, of them have spread the disease to other humans. A virus’s ability to spread is the key to its ability to create a pandemic. New research shows that this bird flu currently lacks the protein key to unlock certain cells in the human upper respiratory tract, preventing it from spreading via a sneeze or a cough.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Thanks Oui. and like this is supposed to change ppl’s minds??!!! <<<“Republicans are already seeking to exploit a possible victory by Lamont as a sign that Democrats are moving too far to the left on national security issues. “They want retreat — under the guise of ‘reducing the U.S. footprint in Iraq,’ ” William Kristol writes in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard.”>>>
good grief!!!! Just what for heavens sake have the republican party been doing all these known years in their existence!!?? I would like to know. Moving to the center..hell no they have been moving far right…there has to be a counter point to all of this leaning don’t you think??!! As I see it we are doing this to both party’s….It has to be done for the safety sake of our country and for the sake of our constitution, for heavens sake. They have to take notice for we are a powerful force to be reckoned with and they know it in both party’s.
It’s essential that we can trust the vote.
I’m entertained by the pundits acting as if we have a reliable system for recording the vote. At this point I trust nothing, Joe could have an easily explained surprise victory.
“We the people” are a legitimate power center that has proven to be easily manipulated.
If Lieberman wins despite recent polls showing him trailing by double digits that would be a clear sign of vote theft. Not that anyone would ever say so publicly except those of us on the “angry left.”
What kind of voting machines do they have in Connecticut? Other kinds of cheating shouldn’t theoretically be a problem in a heavily blue state, but Diebold and friends are always an issue.