JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THINGS COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE FOR LIEBERMAN...

If I didn't personally know him to be a cruel, nasty, vicious and vindictive, self-righteous old hypocrite, I might be starting to feel sorry for Joe Lieberman about now. As more and more people in Connecticut start focusing on the race between Lieberman and Ned Lamont, Lieberman's once mile wide/inch deep support is rapidly evaporating. Although Connecticut Republicans still support him-- and why not, he votes for what's important to them and their leader most of the time-- Lieberman's support among Democrats is heading straight towards the state's approval rating of Bush: under 30%.

Inside the Beltway anti-democrat DSCC head Chuck Schumer is threatening Connecticut voters that if they don't re-nominate Lieberman he and other DC elitists will ignore the Connecticut Democratic Party-- which will surely spark an internal Party civil war-- and back Lieberman anyway. Most of the state's top Democrats don't seem too pleased with Schumer's typically heavy-handed and authoritarian interference and have already served notice that they will support whomever wins the August 8 primary, regardless of what party Lieberman runs on or Schumer supports. Last week both Democratic gubernatorial candidates, the Democratic Secretary of State and 2 of the 3 congressional challengers-- Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy-- pledged their support to whomever wins the primary. (Diane Farrell hasn't released a statement. An anti-war Democrat, she's in a peculiar position since the Republican she's running against, Chris Shays, has endorsed Lieberman.)

Today Connecticut's State Senator Majority Leader (and former Democratic Party Chairman), George Jepson broke open the dam and gave Ned a resounding endorsement. He's the first big-name Connecticut establishment Dem to do so (at least publicly). The endorsement is sending shockwaves through the state and, although no one is saying Lieberman is on suicide watch, he must know now it's all over for him and that because of his duplicitous support for Bush and the right-wing agenda, the gig is up.

Jepson explained that his support for Ned "begins with the war, but is not limited to the war... I sincerely like Joe Lieberman. But I disagree profoundly with his unyielding support for George Bush's war in Iraq, his embrace of the so-called 'culture of life' in overriding the rights of Terry Schiavo, his failure to be an advocate for civil rights issues, his support for school vouchers, his being the only
New England Senator to vote to allow the federal government to put a natural gas pipeline in Long Island Sound." He predicted that Ned's presence on the ticket will help all Democrats, "because
we will be speaking in one voice."

Steve Clemons has more at The TPM Coffee House. Apparently Jepsen, who has known Lieberman for 29 years, likes him personally. But he went on to tell Clemons that "This has become a matter of conscience for me, and I can't continue to support Joe Lieberman when there are so many areas of difference between his views and my own. I have known Ned Lamont for 25 years. He is intellectually capable and accomplished and a very thoughtful person. He is not drive by raw ambition but rather by the desire to do good for this state and our country. I know that he is willing to stand up to the Bush administration and work hard for a better and different agenda."

This means a lot more inside Connecticut that anything a treacherous windbag like Chuck Schumer has to say. For Lieberman it's a crack in the damn he'll never be able to repair. He should just take the Secretary of Defense job Bush has offered him.