It's pretty evident from first glance at what's been going on in Connecticut that Joseph I. Lieberman has never run a primary race for a statewide office in his life. Incumbency is such an advantage that the only way an incumbent can be defeated in a primary election is for said incumbent to defeat themselves. On that score, Joe's been doing a real whiz bang job! More after the fold...
The first mistake Lieberman made was actually six years ago when retaining a place in politics was more important to the man than doing what was best for his party. Had he determined not to seek his Senate seat while running for the Vice Presidency, it would have guaranteed the seat would remain with the Democrats. Joe's ego got in the way, though, and with a Republican governor in office, had the SCOTUS stayed out of the fray and the Gore/Lieberman ticket prevailed, the seat would have been appointed to a Republican. Joe was more important than his party in 2000.
The second set of mistakes was in his determination that it was more important for him to be seen in political light embracing the policies of the opposition time and again, all the while appearing on talking head shows to decry the actions of his fellow Democrats. Little did he know that long before his support for an ill-advised and illegal war, the seeds of discontent were already sewn with the loyal activist base of his own party.
The most critical mistake Lieberman made in his entire career was to determine he needed an "insurance policy" to insure he gets to keep HIS Senate Seat (as opposed to the fact that it is the People of Connecticut's Senate Seat). This insures that the people see him as weak and ineffectual if he's so worried about winning a primary that he must throw his own party under the bus in a desperate attempt to hold onto power.
It's sad, really. He isn't enough of a man to fight for his political life within the confines of his own party's apparatus, a party which nominated him for the second highest position possible to attain in American politics. IT proves he's precisely the weak person his critics have been claiming him to be for nearly six years! It's also proof that the man is a sore loser.
Now, it's become like watching a slow motion train wreck in progress. It's disgustingly sick to see a man's career painfully and slowly destroyed by that man, but you simply cannot look away!
You know the man's political career is over when in a primary election cycle he says, "I am no President Bush." The fat lady has been singing for a while, but the voice keeps coming out of Joe Lieberman's mouth.
I'll be glad when the election is over and Joe can quietly retire to a life as a full time pundit on Fox News. Perhaps he'll regale us will Zellisms afterwards, but he'll be mostly harmless once he has lost.