What tonight showed is that democracy can work. That even the most powerful, entrenched forces can be dislodged by people-power. That the combined mights of the Democratic and Conservative establishments couldn't hold the gates against the barbarian intruders.

::::::::

Winner:

Ned Lamont. The guy has it all -- a great job, a great family, a great home, and very cute, if lazy, dog. Yet he tossed that aside for a quixotic run, dumping in millions of his own money in what was really, at first, a statement race. When I first met Lamont I told him that if he played this right, win or lose, he would have an army behind him that would be a force for good in Connecticut and beyond.

You know why I liked Lamont, what sold me on him? He had hints of insecurity. In politics, you realize that every politician just about oozes ego. You can smell it across the room. But here was a guy who didn't think the world revolved around him as he plotted the most efficient path to the White House. He was doing this not out of ego but because he believed in the causes he was fighting for. To me, that was refreshing. (Same goes for Tester, btw).

Loser:

Joe Lieberman. Obviously. An 18-year incumbent, former vice-presidential nominee, swimming in money and establishment backing, and he claims a moral victory for not getting blown out of the water? Bonus points for still keeping the "my crappy site was hacked" storyline. I can't wait to see the FBI report.

Winners:

People-powered politics. At YearlyKos, caught up in the moment, I foolishly made the following prediction in my keynote address.

Lieberman is going to lose.

Why was I so confident?

Just today we get news of a new poll out of Connecticut. A month ago, a Quinnipiac University had the Senate Democratic race at 65 percent Joe Lieberman, 19 percent Ned Lamont.

Today's poll? Lieberman's lead has shrunk to 55-40 amongst likely Democratic primary voters.

See that? Insanity. I saw Lamont losing by 15 points, and somehow that foreshadowed Lieberman's loss. But I was excited because we had just seen Jon Tester crush his opponent in Montana despite being tied in the polls. People-power propelled him to victory and I expected the same would happen in Connecticut. Tonight we saw that people-power is not just a Montana phenomenon but a national one, and it can move mountains.

Losers:

The DLC (and the New Republic, as well). Not only did they lose the first fully contested primary between a DLC candidate and a people-powered candidate in the Montana Senate primary, but they saw their patron saint go down in defeat last night. And this wasn't just any defeat, this was the triumph of a rag-tag band of rebels against everything the DC Democratic establishment could throw at us -- President Clinton, Barbara Boxer, NARAL, and so on. That's 0-2 in these contests for the DLC this cycle.

Seeing Al From's oldest nemesis, Jesse Jackson, behind Lamont tonight must've driven him insane. That brings a smile to my face.

Losers:

Lobbyists. They've paid good money to buy Joe Lieberman. How do you buy a guy that doesn't need money? That isn't willing to be corrupted by their strings-attached cash?

Winners

Democracy and the people of Connecticut. I haven't seen the final turnout numbers, but if they are around 50 percent, that's incredible. Maybe three percent turned out for the Virginia Democratic Senate primaries.

Losers

Every Connecticut newspaper which endorsed Lieberman. Memo from the people of Connecticut -- they didn't care.

Winner

Maxine Waters. Damn that woman busted her butt for Lamont, and she did so with class and flair.

Loser

Chris Dodd. Lieberman's staunchest defender can still redeem himself if he brokers Lieberman's exit from the race.

Winners

Hillary, Bayh, and Edwards, who moved most aggressively to embrace Lamont after the winner was called.

Losers

The DC beltway consultancies. Boy, they went up against an all-star team of out-of-DC consultants and got their asses handed to them. Tom Swan ran circles around the Lieberman brain trust, Bill Hillsman made the best ads of the cycle, ran far fewer than Lieberman's ad people did, and clearly had a bigger impact. Tim Tagaris, who I'm proud is a fellow Chicagoan, has shown us again how our 50-state-strategy can have unexpected benefits. While the 2004 campaign of Jeff Seemann fizzled, the campaign gave us Tim. And he tore it up in the Paul Hackett special election, and tore it up again in Connecticut. He's the best netroots coordinator in the biz and we might not have him had it not been for the 2004 Kos Dozen.

Meanwhile, the DC crowd led a popular 18-year-incumbent to defeat. Is it any wonder Republicans have been kicking our ass?

Winner

ctkeith, who was the crazy guy telling anyone who would listen that Lieberman was vulnerable. He tried, so, so hard to get Attorney General Richard Blumenthal into the race. I bet Blumenthal wishes he'd done it now. ctkeith was the genius/crazy guy behind the kiss buttons and DumpJoe.com, which was sort of forgotten as the Connecticut blogosphere (another bunch of winners) rose and took center stage.

Losers

Republicans. They're going to do some silly press conference on Wednesday claiming the Democratic Party is held in thrall by craaaazy people who agree with, um, 2/3rds of the American people on Iraq. If they want to make a big deal and remind people they have no exit strategy for Iraq, then by all means, therein lies the path to bizarro 1994.

If they really thought Lieberman losing was such a bad thing for the Democratic Party they wouldn't have gone out of their way to prop him up. Instead, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, the wingnutosphere, several Republican congresscritters, and the GOP's Big Money all rallied around their man. This is not a happy day for them.

Winners

Democrats. Did you see Rahm out of the gate tonight?

"This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the leader of the Democratic House Congressional campaign. "This is not about the war. It's blind loyalty to Bush."

This is a party with purpose. United on the war (under the call for withdrawal from Iraq), fueled by record fundraising and shockingly good poll numbers, and operating in the best political climate for the opposition since 1994, Dems are poised to make killer gains this fall. And without Lieberman in the caucus to undermine it from within, unity and commonality of purpose is now on the table.

One more point, and an important one to close with --

Tonight's race was watched from every corner of this country. There wasn't a city I hit during my book tour (and I hit over 40 of them) in which someone didn't ask about this race, where people didn't cheer when I mentioned Lamont's name.

What tonight showed is that democracy can work. That even the most powerful, entrenched forces can be dislodged by people-power. That the combined mights of the Democratic and Conservative establishments couldn't hold the gates against the barbarian intruders.

We can make a difference, and we will. We have just seen what we can accomplish if we set our minds to it. Now while we'll work to seal the deal in Connecticut, we'll also take our energy, our passion, and yes, even our dollars and use them to teach the ruling Republican ideologues running our country into the ground that they face repercussions for their incompetence.

Everyone has a race nearby that could user your help. We will win the battleground races. We will win many "lean Republican" ones. We will shock in several more. And even where we lose, we'll build the party for the future, recognizing that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the Conservative movement.

We're in it for the long haul, but that won't stop us from kicking ass in the short term.

So saddle up. We're under 100 days to the general election. The time to fight is now.

Originally published on www.dailykos.com

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