WILL MOVEON.org HELP FIND A PRIMARY CHALLENGER FOR BUSH'S #1 ALLY IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, JOE LIEBERMAN?

There are a small handful of elected Democrats generally further to the right than Joe Lieberman, but none as disgusting, moralistic, corrupt, treasonous and as worthy of banishment from the Democratic Party. I was overjoyed today when I read in David Sirota's column that MoveOn.org is mulling financing a primary challenge to Lieberman.

In the late 60s I was a late night/early morning dj on the other side of the Long Island sound from Connecticut. I used to get a lot of calls from people in Connecticut and all they ever wanted to hear was the most horrible reactionary Southern Rock. It was my first impression of the state but the impression didn't get better with time. Lowell Weicker was an actual independent-minded, decent progressive Republican moderate (unlike today's batch of fake Republican "moderates" like Susan Collins, George Voinovich, John McCain, Arlen Specter...). He lost his seat after a nasty challenge far far to his right-- from a vicious and reactionary, low-blow Democrat: Joe Lieberman.

Overall Lieberman probably votes slightly "better" than the 2 Nelsons (FL and NE), Mary Landrieu (LA), Max Baucus (MT), Mark Pryor (AR), maybe a Dakotan or two. And he's actually good on environmental issues. But he's a moralistic prig who has almost single-handedly (with some help from the horrible Tipper Gore) alienated youth culture from the Democratic Party (try reading Danny Goldberg's completely excellent book DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS: HOW THE LEFT LOST TEEN SPIRIT) and he seems to sincerely believe that he represents the interests of the Likud Party in the U.S. Senate more than the interests of the people of Connecticut. That throws him into the arms-- both literally and figuratively-- of George Bush. Their chumminess has opened Lieberman up to lots of the Bush Regime's most harebrained and reactionary ideas-- even the destruction of Social Security, reason enough by itself to write Lieberman, like Zell Miller, out of the party.

But the big issue today, the reason why MoveOn.org and progressives in general want to find a primary opponent for Lieberman-- I'd be almost as happy donating to a moderate (a real one) Republican-- is because of his 100% bloodthirsty view on the Iraq war and occupation. The short of it is that Lieberman-- like the Likud-- want Iraq as destroyed and devastated as it can be. The longer and more horrible the occupation is, the better it is for the Likud (though not for the U.S., not for Middle Eastern stability and not for Israel). Last March the NEW YORKER ran a brief piece by Jeffrey Goldberg, mostly about another lame Democratic hawk, Joe Biden. I guess he wanted to show that there are Democrats-- or perhaps just one Democrat-- to the right of Biden in the foreign policy arena. "Bottom line," the Connecticut asshole told the NEW YORKER, "I think Bush has it right." After listening to his aggressive defense of the war and his total disconnect from objective reality, Goldberg asked him if he considers himself a neoconservative. "No, but some of my best friends are neocons," he answered, provocatively.

And he has provoked. In the same interview that he praised Bush's war he took part in the game he is most hated for among Democrats-- smearing his colleagues for his pals on the Far Right. Corporate media loves him for it and always has a place for a vicious little trained monkey like Lieberman. "Dean was wrong on the war and what he was talking about was bad for the country." The vast majority of Democrats and most of the country don't feel that way. Most people think Bush's and Lieberman's crap was bad for the country. Can it make a difference in Connecticut?

Today's HARTFORD COURANT paints a picture of Lieberman as a self-serving backstabber. "(MoveOn.org's Tom) Matzzie, whose organization claims more than 50,000 Connecticut members, said Wednesday that if his members ask, his group would back a Democratic challenger to Lieberman. Matzzie was in New Haven last month, and found the No. 1 question people asked me was, 'What are we going to do about Joe Lieberman?'"