Lieberman

I haven't been tempted to write much about the Connecticut Senate Primary, because a) I'm Canadian, and b) It's Connecticut, for chrissakes.

But it's worth mentioning that yes, Liberman deserved to lose. Not just because he ran a crappy, awful, really bad campaign. Not just because he supported the war. And not just because he thinks women in CT can just take a short drive after they've been raped, and are looking for emergency contraception.

Actually, "just" one of those reasons would be enough, on their own.

But the thing that struck me as most telling about Lieberman was a story I first read at Steve Gilliards (I think) from a soldier who served in Iraq, and was posted on the Lamont blog:

As some readers may have heard, in January my battalion was issued substandard equipment for our deployment to Afghanistan. Originally, we were issued M-16s rather than M-4 carbines, rifles with shorter barrels and collapsible butt stocks. As a politcally active member of the battalion, I began to get in touch with Representative DeLauro and Representative Simmons, who both responded quickly and enthusiastically. Senator Dodd also responded quickly and gave me prompts on how to further validate my request for weapons.

However, I did not receive a response from Senator Lieberman’s office. I continued to leave messages for both him and his military aide, now senior counselor, Fred Downey, who reprsented Sen. Lieberman at the Battalion’s send off ceremony on Jan. 4. After several messages, I finally received a return phone call. However, I was not met with the same enthusiams expressed by other legislators; I was immediately confronted with an inquisition that seemed to have the purpose of dispelling the belief that the battalion was ill equipped. Rather than listen to our specific concerns, the “benefits” of the M16 were highlighted and teh advantages of the M4 were downplayed.

Lieberman didn't just support the war. He drank the Kool-Aid, and has played a gleeful role in defending Bush and the Republicans for their mismanagement of the war. For that alone, he deserved a strong primary challenge.

Rather than try to justify his views and actions to the people of his state, Liberman responded with the most incompetent, petulant campaign I can think of. And he lost. Good riddance.