What happened yesterday in Connecticut

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

In 2000, Joe Lieberman made the Democratic Party's presidential ticket. He ran for President in 2004 and was an early front runner in the primaries. But yesterday, he couldn't even muster the support of his home state's Democratic voters. Instead, Ned Lamont will be running as the Democrat for Lieberman's Senate seat.

I have heard much idiotic post-mortem analysis on this primary, some of it coming from our unofficial seat of government, Crawford, TX. Bush's Press Secretary Tony Snow put out a statement in which he says: "I think ... 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."

Give me a break. The "extreme left" brought Lieberman down? Here's my take...

Lieberman felt free to criticize a Democratic President for his personal failings, but questions the patriotism of anyone who criticizes the current Republican President, stating that this would "undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."

Lieberman aligned himself with the Christian Right in trying to overturn the decision of the courts in the Terri Schiavo case.

Lieberman has often supported supply-side economic policies that favor corporations at the expense of individuals. While he voted against the Republicans' punitive bankruptcy reform bill in 2005, he helped its passage by failing to support a filibuster.

Lieberman has supported school voucher programs, which draw federal funds away from the public schools.

Lieberman, on issues of foreign policy, is a neocon.

Lieberman rarely passes up an opportunity to appear on Fox News with right-wing pundits to attack his fellow Democrats.

Lieberman was singled out for a kiss on the cheek (no joke!) by President Bush after Bush's 2005 State of the Union address. (The kiss of death?)

Lieberman announced that he'd run as an independent if he lost the primary -- the Democratic Party be damned.

And so on.

Lieberman won endorsements from prominent Democrats, such as the two Senators from my home state of Illinois -- Dick Durbin and Barack Obama. Bill Clinton also helped campaign for him. On the other hand, right-wing pundit Sean Hannity offered his endorsement on Hannity's radio show, and Lieberman was also endorsed by Ann Coulter as her "favorite Democrat." I think the endorsements from opposite sides of the political spectrum cancel each other out rather than reinforce each other.

Joe Lieberman, in the end, came to represent the interests of entrenched power. And so he preferred to stay inside the bubble of the political pundits and the D.C. politicians where everyone loved him. But the people who mattered -- Connecticut Democrats -- were appalled at many of the positions outlined above, and they felt Ned Lamont could do better.

When it came time for Lieberman to concede defeat, he announced his candidacy as an independent, just as he had threatened. Early polling had shown that Lieberman would win such a contest handily, thanks to Republicans who would cross party lines to vote for him. I heard several commentators express this view last night. But a more recent Rasmussen poll had Lieberman (as Ind.) and Lamont (as Dem.) tied at 40% apiece. I suspect that Lieberman will discover who his fair-weather friends are, now that he's lost the support of his party, and I don't think it is likely he'll win in November.