A Democrat Loses a Primary Race and the Republicans Freak Out?

Technorati tags: politics, elections, Joe Lieberman's loss to Ned Lamont in Connecticut has the republicans in a panic

Let's have fun with the Moonie Paper. Donald Lambro writes in The Washington Times:

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's defeat by anti-war Democrats pushed his party further to the left on national-security issues that could hurt its prospects in the 2006 and 2008 elections, analysts said yesterday.

Mr. Lieberman's repudiation at the hands of challenger Ned Lamont in Tuesday's primary was a dramatic demonstration of the growing political strength of the party's left wing, which demands the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq.


"What we saw in Connecticut was evidence of the division within the Democratic Party, and Democrats may have to choose sides in that Lieberman-Lamont battle that could well promote an internal argument in the party in 2006, 2008 and beyond," said elections analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

Here's the thing - the only people predicting gloom and doom for democrats are on the right. They also seem to be the only friends Lieberman has anymore.

In the Moonie article, Lambro quotes Republican National Committee chairman as saying that Lieberman's loss "reflects an unfortunate embrace of isolationism, defeatism and a 'blame America first' attitude by national Democratic leaders at a time when retreating from the world is particularly dangerous."

Think Progress reports that Dick Cheney is characteristically blunt (and wrong):

As the Mideast sits on the brink of regional war, Vice President Dick Cheney spent his time yesterday holding a teleconference to discuss the outcome of the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut.

Cheney said that to “purge a man like Joe Lieberman” was “of concern, especially over the issue of Joe’s support with respect to national efforts in the global war on terror.” He explained:

The thing that’s partly disturbing about it is the fact that, the standpoint of our adversaries, if you will, in this conflict, and the al Qaeda types, they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.

The reliably crazy Cal Thomas writes that Lamont's victory represents a win for the 'Taliban Democrats':

The narrow primary defeat of veteran senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary is more than a loss for one man. It is a loss for his party and for the country. It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing.

Someone needs to tell Cal that the party of fundamentalist religious nuts is his own - ask the mullahs Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell. E.J. Dionne, Jr. writes:

Finally, from Tony Snow, the White House official who speaks for the president, came this analysis of the Connecticut result: "It's a defining moment for the Democratic Party, whose national leaders now have made it clear that if you disagree with the extreme left in their party they're going to come after you."

This statement is rooted in a lie -- or, to be polite, fiction. As Adam Nagourney noted in The New York Times on Thursday: "In fact, the vast majority of Democratic Party leaders supported Mr. Lieberman in the primary and did not endorse Mr. Lamont until after the results were in." On Time.com, Perry Bacon Jr. noted that Lieberman had the support of "almost the entire Democratic establishment."

Is all this outrage of a democrat's primary loss really about perceived party purity? Can the GOP possibly be that hypocritical? While screaming and tearing their hair out over Lieberman's loss, a purge of their own is quietly being arranged, as Associated Press reports:

Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent, GOP conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

The Club for Growth and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz's support from President Bush and the National Rifle Association.

[...]

This year, the group's top priority is defeating Chafee, who angered many Republicans by voting against President Bush's tax cuts and then casting a write-in vote for the president's father in the last election. The Club has helped Cranston, R.I., Mayor Stephen Laffey raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat Chafee, and polls show the two Republicans running even a month before the Sept. 12 primary.

Chafee's position doesn't mirror Lieberman's, however. Where there's no chance of the Connecticut seat going to the GOP, republicans attack Lincoln Chafee at their own peril. As AP reports, "The prospect of a Laffey win worries national Republicans, who consider Chafee the party's best bet for holding the seat in a heavily Democratic state. Polls show Laffey trailing far behind the leading Democratic candidate, former Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse."

As I wrote in an earlier post (The GOP Need a Lieberman Win), the prospect of republicans losing control of the Senate is so real that they need pro-Bush democrats in office to mitigate the loss. And foolish partisans like those in Club for Growth aren't helping any.

Which explains why all the people freaking out over Lamont's win are on the right. As Cal Thomas wrote, "For those who still believe not only in a strong two-party system, but also in compromise and conciliation in order to promote the general welfare and seek the common good, the Lieberman defeat strikes an especially harmful blow."

Really? When has the GOP compromised on anything lately? What the right needs are democrats who'll roll over and let them get away with anything. What voters - and America - need is something else entirely.

--Wisco