It had to happen sooner or later - Joe Lieberman must have had someone mention to him that normally, an incumbent's main job in the primaries is to defend his record, not angrily attack his opponent's supporters (who, after all, he'll immediately want to court afterwards). This is part of why the bear ad was so laughably awful - seriously, Joe, just because cartoon bears won eighteen years ago doesn't mean they're the be-all and end-all of Connecticut senate campaigns.
In a mailer I received today (scanner's on the fritz, sorry), Joe put out a reminder of his Democratic cred - his scores from NARAL, the AFL-CIO, et cetera. Yes, I know, he games his votes and breaks away on the big issues, but he doesn't care about the informed voter: he remembered that the reason for gaming his votes was so he could put up good numbers to woo Democrats.
It was a decent mailer - nice pictures of Joe, lots of talk about the parts of his record that Democrats like, a line that starts "Since the day he won the popular vote with Al Gore against George Bush..." But it was more notable to me by what wasn't there. Amidst several insistent claims that he "stood tough against George Bush", there's no mention whatsoever of the first elephant in the room, his stance on the Republican war in Iraq. But omitted points aren't so readily notable as overt ones.
There is one paragraph that would come back to haunt him if he loses the primary and runs as an Independent:
Join me and the other Democratic candidates for Congress in taking back our country. Let's unite this election season to make the future of our state as good as it can and should be.
Joe? Making a plea for unity? He's definitely hoping to get the uninformed vote. On most issues, he's got a reasonably good voting record, but when you get right down to it, there is simply no justification for a senator from a state as blue as Connecticut to be as liable as he is to break ranks. Republican Confederate senators vote in lockstep with their party; New England Democrats ought to be forming a similar bloc (at least on core issues like opposition to Alito, etc).
Going on a bit of a tangent: If Joe were to win the primary, I don't think he'd inspire anyone. He wouldn't inspire the excitement and energy that Ned Lamont can muster, but I don't think he'd inspire this site to continue opposing him, either. My suspicion is that, if Lieberman wins, we'll be seeing nothing further about his race - plenty about his cancer-on-the-caucus actions and statements, as usual, but nobody would either push him or fight him by then.
Anyhow, this is Joe's first real campaign as an incumbent, isn't it? He beat Wiecker, then hasn't faced any serious opposition since then. So it's not surprising that his initial reaction was to try the same things he remembered from his last campaign - but now he's found someone who can tell him how to run on the good parts of his record.