The people of Connecticut have not only their own state interests to consider in this primary election, but a serious responsibility to the nation at large. This is also an important opportunity long overdue. Senator Lieberman must not be allowed to escape accountability for his record of complicity with the most dishonest administration in history. But now rightfully challenged, Lieberman has decided to openly threaten the voters of Connecticut should they dare to choose a new Senator. He has decided that by running as an "independent" he can and will certainly split the vote and give the GOP the win. This act by Lieberman alone ought to make the choice clear. A message must be sent that any man who would threaten to do this in response to the will of the voters is absolutely intolerable as a continued representative.
The Democratic voters of Connecticut also need to understand that even if Mr. Lieberman were to succeed in "punishing" them by creating the conditions for a GOP win, they would be no worse off than they are with Senator Lieberman: at least the potential Republican Senator would be identifiable as a Republican. Obviously the same cannot be said of Senator Lieberman. Just how dishonest does a Democratic candidate have to be these days to make the Republican candidate appear to be the more honest? That's a rhetorical question.
How utterly insulting, then, to the intelligence of the voters that Mr. Lieberman asks "who is Ned Lamont?" and then claims Lamont "can't be trusted": Joe Lieberman has shown that beneath his long cultivated veil of gentility, beneath his "nice family guy" image, beneath his smiles and his baby kissing, lies a ruthless, shrewd, coldly calculating level self-interest that has finally resulted in an assault on the party he's stealthily resided in and abused for 18 years. Whether or not one knew anything else of Lieberman's record of 18 years, his decision now to use the Democratic party's money one last time, and to then turn and destroy the party's chances for victory if the people ask him to step aside, prove beyond doubt that Lieberman's only value has been his own corrupt power all along. There's no mistaking this for anything else, it's exactly what it looks like; pure blackmail.
At the end of the day, Mr. Lieberman may well be able to prevent Joe Lamont from representing the Democrats of Connecticut from electing a Senator who actually represents them. What more really do voters now need to know about Lieberman than this? If for no other reason, the Democrats of Connecticut ought to grasp the fact that Senator Lieberman has just openly spit right in their faces and admitted himself to be the very enemy of the Democratic party his opponent and so many others have alleged him to be. Mr. Lieberman is a complete fraud and he knows it; all he has left is to actually threaten voters. I cannot think of anything more despicable. The arrogance of this man is truly breath taking.
The Democratic voters of Connecticut need to understand that this open contempt for their political will exposes what the last eighteen years of Lieberman's residence inside the Democratic party have really been about; Lieberman typifies "the problem" with the Democratic party.
Lieberman's "performance" in the televised debate with Mr. Lamont was a complete disgrace. Rather than owning up to the last 5 years he's been spent enabling the most destructive and criminal administration in history, Mr. Lieberman chose instead to engage in school yard name calling beginning with the absurd charge of "millionaire" against Lamont. Last time I checked, Mr. Lieberman was also a millionaire. But Ned Lamont didn't become a millionaire sucking the blood from Democratic party funds, he became one as a private citizen who worked. In other words Ned Lamont doesn't need Joe Liberman's Senate seat to retain the limousine service or get boxed seating at a ball game. The same cannot be said of Mr. Lieberman can it.
Aside from ridding themselves of a clearly corrupt Senator, the voters of Connecticut have an opportunity to send an urgently overdue message nationally to other corrupt Democrats who would play voters for fools at the continued expense of the nation: "We've had enough, you are out of here". Senator Lieberman's overt political blackmail should be harshly punished by the voters of Connecticut. If they back down from his threats and "pay", Senator Lieberman's self-serving abuses will have no end.