It's No Accident

Congratulations to the Defeat Lieberman Movement! I write this just minutes after the New York Times website announced the news of Lieberman's concession. Now he needs to be re-defeated in the general election, and that is an important task, but let's not underestimate the significance of this moment.

There has been a tendency among Lamont supporters in recent weeks to try to claim that this election is not just about the war; the aim was to try to duck the question of why people chose Lieberman as the target despite the fact that many other Democrats (e.g., Hillary Clinton) also backed the war. And it is true that Lamont will be reliably better than Lieberman on a range of issues such as support for public education.

But why duck the fact that this election was about the war? Yes, there were other Democrats who supported it, but Lieberman was especially strident in doing so, and he made a place for himself as Bush's favorite Democrat because of his stance. His targeting and defeat are going to be seen as the electoral surge of the anti-war movement. This is good. It's especially interesting to note that, while the right wing and the DLC wing of the Democrats have been seething with hatred over Lamont, several establishment media outlets -- including the New York Times -- endorsed Lamont over Lieberman. This is one more sign of the significant split in the ranks of the ruling class. There is now an active dove faction among them. They see the opportunity that mass antiwar sentiment presents. The Defeat Lieberman Movement has already struck a blow for the anti-war movement even if Lamont does not win in November -- but we should all hope that he does, and do what we can to make it happen.