Demagogue

I just watched Joe Lieberman whining on ABC about last night's loss and his promise to run as an independent. Preceeding the interview was a longish segment about how bloggers-- especially "anti-war bloggers"-- were responsible for Lamont's victory. There was no mention of the strong possibility that Lieberman was rejected because he was viewed as out-of-touch with Connecticut voters.

Predictably, Lieberman is not taking the loss personally and is blaming it on a non-mainstream "takeover" despite the fact that 81% of democrats oppose the war.

Diane Sawyer: Do you think extremists hijacked your party in your state?

JL: The blogs are a form of expression...the bloggers who came after me, some of them were so full of hatred and bifurcation it's just not good for politics and frankly on some of those blogs there was the kind of bigotry that has no place in American life. So I worry that this victory yesterday by Lamont, which was a narrow victory, will send a message that the Democratic party has been taken over by people who are not from the mainstream of Amreica and that they are going to make this not Bill Clinton's Democratic Party anymore.

In the interview Lieberman repeatedly warned about "partisanship" and said that he stands for unity-- while promising to run as an independent against his party's nomination. Last night in his concession/independent run announcement speech he said "The old politics of partisan polarization won today. I cannot and will not let that result stand." Sorry, dear, but that rhetoric doesn't work so well when you're running against your own party.