Lieberman concedes, says he will run as an independent in November

Give to Lamont NOW, we need to stop Lieberman. Enough is enough.

Lieberman concedes and says he will run as an independent. He just, again, attacked Democrats in Washington for being too partisan and "playing political games" rather than working with the Republicans. Yes, that's been the biggest problem with the Democratic party the past six years, they've stood up to George Bush too much. Yeah, I wish.

What an arrogant, out of touch, jerk.

This will be a disaster for the Democratic party, and it is all of Joe Lieberman's making.

1. If Lieberman runs as an independent, HE will be "the" big story of the November elections, rather than the endangered incumbent Republicans.

2. As a part of the story, Lieberman has already made clear that he will be running with Karl Rove's talking points, attacking Democrats for supposedly being soft on national security and not remembering the horrors and lessons of September 11. Rather than have this be a national election about the Republican incompetence, Joe Lieberman will make the entire country focus on his election in which he will portray himself as the last "strong on security Democrat."

3. The blogosphere and the grassroots will, understandably, spend most of their time fighting Lieberman rather than focusing on other important races that could swing the House or Senate to our side.

4. Democratic politicians will likely divide along lines of supporting Lieberman or supporting Lamont, enraging the grassroots and the blogs, who will then retaliate. Lots of energy, lots of anger, and all of it spent attacking our own, rather than the Republicans.

Joe Lieberman claims he's a Democrat. He claims he doesn't really want to hurt his party. If this is true, then he needs to step down with dignity and recognize that he lost. The alternative is to risk his party's chance to win back the Congress after 12 years in exile. And make no mistake, that is exactly what Lieberman is now doing. Jeopardizing our chance to take back the Congress because he refuses to abide by the results of the people. Then why did he run in the race at all?

The Democratic Party cannot afford the risk an independent Joe Lieberman race poses to our success this fall. The only question is whether they, and Lieberman, both realize this fact, and whether they're going to do anything, fast, to head it off.