More on Lieberman-Lamont primary

BY CHARLIE HALL

I've already expressed my opinion on tomorrow's Democratic primary between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont:

http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/07/connecticut-primary-could-be-dangerous.html

Like most pundits, I had pretty much treated this as a one-issue race -- Iraq. But an article in the Washington Post indicates that there may be other things going on, and those other things aren't issues:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080700250.html

It says something that people value a member of congress not for how well they deal with the fortunes of the country but on how well they deal with the misfortunes of a constituent who has trouble with the federal bureaucracy. And if Lieberman loses it will be poetic justice for the Bush administration, which has pretty much assumed thoughout its 5 1/2 years in office that it only needed the support of Republicans to govern. A bit more outreach and a bit less partisanship would have done them well about now.

The election could go any way. Low turnout primaries are notoriously difficult to predict. Lieberman is behind in the last pre-election poll but still has strong support from Labor, Abortion Rights, Gay Rights, and Environmental groups. (Oh, my, have I found more pro-Israel liberals?) But I was living in Massachusetts in 1978 when Gov. Michael Dukakis was upset in a low turnout primary by a conservative candidate; nobody expected it.

We will know this time tomorrow.