Jonathan Chait, yesterday:
[I]f health care reform fails, liberals need to understand who to blame and how to fix it. They need to start knocking off Democrats like Conrad and Joe Lieberman, who seem to be trying to kill health care reform, even if this temporarily costs the Democrats some seats.
Jonathan Chait, July 9, 2006:
Moulitsas and many of his allies insist that they just want Democrats to win. But in fact, they believe that any deviation from the party line -- except for a few circumscribed instances, such as Democrats running for office in red states -- is an unforgivable crime. They have consigned large chunks of the center-left to enemy status. It is an odd way to go about building a majority.
Their technique of victory-via-purge is on display in Connecticut. Although Lamont decided on his own to run, the left bloggers made his campaign their central cause. One result is that Lieberman has announced his intention to run an independent candidacy should he lose the primary. Moulitsas and other Lamont supporters are filled with outrage that Lieberman has opened up the possibility of splitting the liberal vote and letting a Republican win.
Well, OK, some anger is appropriate here. But doesn't this suggest that the whole Lamont crusade has sort of backfired? Although I'm no Karl Rove, it seems to me that turning a rock-solid Democratic seat into a potential Republican pickup represents something less than a political masterstroke.
What happened, Jonathan, to change your mind since 2006? Perhaps it's the fact that our case against Lieberman wasn't about "deviation from the party line", but about full-throated obstruction of Democratic priorities while enabling Bush and his Republican allies? Now, you're demanding primary challenges to Senate Democrats, INCLUDING Lieberman, even if it "temporarily costs the Democrats some seats"! Wow.
Better late than never, I suppose. Too bad you spent all that energy trashing people like me who clearly had a better understanding of the corrosive effect of the likes of Joe Lieberman on the Democratic Party, and pushed for a Democratic Party that was, indeed, able to build a majority. A big one, at that.
Update: Glenn Greenwald has more.