Jon Chait gets it wrong
Writing in the LA Times about liberal bloggers supporting Lamont over Lieberman, Jon Chait says about their anger that Lieberman will run as an independent if loses the primary and risk splitting the democratic/liberal vote thus allowing a republican to win the seat:
Well, OK, some anger is appropriate here. But doesn't this suggest that
the whole Lamont crusade has sort of backfired? Although I'm no Karl
Rove, it seems to me that turning a rock-solid Democratic seat into a
potential Republican pickup represents something less than a political
masterstroke.
But it's not liberal bloggers who support Lamont who are turning the seat into a potential Republican pick up; it's Joe Lieberman who is doing that by vowing to run as independent.
Liberman and his fellow conservative democrats as well as many traditional print pundits are aghast that liberal bloggers are calling for his ouster and are demanding that democrats become the loyal opposition instead of the loyal lapdog. Primaries are for the express purpose of putting forth candidates that the party members who vote in that primary believe will be the best candidate to carry their views and values to Washington.
Bloggers living in California (Kos, for example) and elsewhere can organize opinion and help drive donations to the candidates in states they like, but what's wrong with that? What will drive a Lamont win isn't the din of bloggers, but the grassroots feet on the ground in Connecticut getting Lamont's supporters identified and then to the poles on August 8.
Bloggers create arguments and rhetorical momentum, but that alone won't translate into a victory.
Still, the fear this network of people who agree and are finding ways to take action strikes into print pundocrats who used to rule opinion and into politicians like Lieberman who believe they are entitled to their seats without challenge from members of their own party is heartening to behold. Ideas matter, arguments matter, and anger needs to be channeled and turned into action.
Traditionalists like Lieberman and Chait would like action confined to rubberstamping their views and their aspirations, voting for Joe because there is no other choice.
Those days --thank, goodness-- are fading and the days of the citizen activist are emerging.
