And so Lieberman concedes defeat and vows to run as an Independent. He probably should have done that in the first place, skipping this primary non-sense altogether. Hindsight, yada yada, and all that.

The thing is this: Lieberman represents an anti-party bent that can only be good for the country. He’s always existed above party politics, and his run as an “Independent Democrat” will demonstrate such. I have no qualms with an independent candidacy––it is well within the electoral rules, as was Lamont’s ultimately successful primary challenge. No one should have been telling Lamont to stand down six months ago, and we should afford Lieberman the same respect in the general. “For the good of the party” is an anti-democratic excuse. If you think you can rock the senate, then by all means run. And then rock it.

My only hope is that out of the ashes of this primary defeat comes the makings of a viable, centrist third party. All we need now is McCain, Hagel, Chaffee, Bloomberg, Bayh and, I dunno, Wes Clark (maybe someone less crazy) to bow out of their respective party ranks, meet up with Liebs in the party-free middle, and stake out a new, centrist, purple-party path. Won’t happen, the party machinations are much too strong. But a boy can dream.

For more along those ideas, check out James Strock over at Unity 08:

“Lieberman stands uniquely able to represent the Nutmeg State’s new reality: increasingly independent of party orthodoxy. He might well become a real-life version of Jimmy Stewart’s great character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, an outsider uniquely able to speak truth to power, not beholden to any party or interest group.”

Read the whole thing; a lot of good points.

Is it me, or is Kos’s hissy-fit over Lieberman’s supposed ultra-cheapness in bad taste?

“Here’s the deal — you get what you pay for. My hosting bill is now over $7K per month. A smaller site doesn’t need that much bandwidth, but if you’re paying $15 because your $12 million campaign is too freakin’ cheap to pay for quality hosting, then don’t go blaming your opponent when your shitty service goes out.”

Kos went on to add “that stupid Jew!”

And furthermore:

“One side is acting mature, the other is running around making baseless accusations.”

I haven’t really heard the “real mature” line since being chastised in the seventh grade by eleven year old girls angry over my aggressive bra snapping. Nevertheless, Kos was the guy jumping around just this morning ranting about Lieberman’s supposed delinquent bill paying, when clearly he understood this wasn’t the case.

I guess once he realized Lieberman was Jewish and not black, he changed his tune.

This is embarrassing.

So Joe Lieberman’s campaign site goes dead and the host company puts up this auto-generated message: This Account Has Been Suspended…please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

Kos immediately jumps up and down, screaming Liebo-Cheapo:

“The campaign is so freakin’ incompetent that they can’t even pay their hosting bills on time. And, when busted, they cast about for blame elsewhere…. Actually, I admit it. I woke up this morning, sacrificed a goat, and next thing you know — viola! — the Lieberman campaign forgot to pay their hosting bill.”

Give it a rest. This is good people doing ugly things. Ok, maybe Kos isn’t exactly “good people,” but any owner and operator of a website clearly should know that these messages are automated, and the “contact billing/support” in no way automatically indicates a delinquent bill. Nevertheless, Kos has been hammering this to no end.

According to Lieberman’s spokesperson, it looks like the “delinquent bill” argument is full of it. He’s got the letter from the hosting company to prove it.

To avoid stooping to Kosian levels, I’ll admit I’m still up in the air whether or not this server overload represents a direct attack by Lamont supporters against the Lieberman campaign. But there’s a small, cynical, spiteful spiteful part of me that’s hoping it is.

Just stumbled upon the following quote in the DailKos FAQ:

“This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we’re all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN’s Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we’re around here and we’re proud. But it’s not a liberal blog. It’s a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory.”

Say wha, now? I fail to see how MM’s attempted purge of Lieberman from the Democratic fold in any way fits in with his supposed solitary goal. Happily embrace centrists? Please give to me many breaks.

Ok, so Joe Lieberman makes a confusing and awkward ad and Josh Marshall spends days disecting it. He then criticisez Ned Lamont for terminating his membership in a racist country club only once he realized doing so would be politically expedient, and DailyKos goes bananas. But one of Lamont’s most adament supportors on the blog front PhotoShops a disturbing image of Joe Lieberman in black face (what’s with Clinton’s shades?) and nary a peep is made? The word “blackface” hasn’t appeared on TalkingPointMemo.com, TPMCafe.com, DailyKos.com or Huffingtonpost.com in the past six months.

This is pathetic. Marshall gets me going the most; this is one of the most respected and reasonable bloggers in the entire game, and all he can manage in this campaign is a series of misleading claims of impartiality and a steady diet of anti-Lieberman/pro-Lamont electioneering.

Please someone tell me Moulitsas hijacked Marshall and is holding him now in his den of crazy.

Embedded Lamont blogger Jane Hamsher posts a “satirical” photo of Lieberman in black face (the doctored photo has since been removed). From Holy Joe to Negro Joe?

The unhinged blogosphere is destroying liberalism.

Here’s how I see it:

Ned Lamont would make a crappy Senator. That should be pretty obvious to everyone. I imagine even many of his supports concede he isn’t the most stellar candidate, and it’s dead obvious he’d be relegated to the far end of the senate seniority scale were he to ever make it that far. By virtue of his performance in last month’s debate, it’s clear there’s simply nothing engaging about this guy. There are plenty of people already in the senate who have managed to memorize their party’s focus-tested talking points; that skill alone no longer qualifies one for the position.

Lieberman, on other hand, remains one of the most respected and admired politicians in the country, a senator with political influence and reach rivaled perhaps only by guys like John McCain and Ted Kennedy. Politicians are happy and willing to work with him on a variety of issues, and, on most all of them, Joe brings to the table a healthy dose a traditional liberalism.

That said, he’s been dead wrong about this war, and, at his worst, strangely incapable of criticizing this administration’s conduct in waging it. That’s a pig headedness that is rightfully troubling to many. But, to be honest, I’m willing to forgive him this grievance, partly out of the benefit of the doubt, but primarily out of the admiration and respect I have developed for the guy as I’ve watched him champion many domestic issues with a progressive zeal that would be otherwise disastrous in today’s political climate.

Joe could have dropped his support for the Iraq war a long time ago for politically expedient reasons. He probably should have dropped his support a long time ago in recognition of President Bush’s stunning incompetence. But he didn’t, he sees something in the war a lot of us don’t, and he’s sticking with an unpopular position despite potentially disastrous political repercussions. The position is wrong, but his conviction is admirable.

If anything, Joe’s controversial signature drive for an independent ticket is move beyond partisanship –– good for the country, bad for his primary chances. If you ask me, the guy should drop out of the current race altogether, pull a Jeffords and stake out a centrist, independent candidacy (McCain-Liberman 2008, perhaps?) Such a move would truly be the “Cup of Joe” type thing to do. But I still refuse to see any potential independent-candidacy as some sort of “cover-all-bases” type maneuver. The guy truly sees himself as a lifelong Democrat (from the Civil Rights movement on up), and if it was up to him, support for the war would be an integral part of the Democratic platform.

Joey Liebs…I feel you, buddy. And if one more supposedly liberal blogger drops the thinly cloaked anti-semetic slur “Holy Joe” one more time…well then I think you have a pretty sizable campaign contribution coming your way. The bastards.

David Brooks seems peeved that poor people are increasingly finding time to read some books and hang out in coffee shops.

“Alan Beggerow, once a steelworker, now sleeps nine hours day, reads two or three books a week, writes Amazon reviews, practices the piano and writes Louis L’Amour-style westerns. “I have come to realize that my free time is worth a lot to me,” he said…

This is terrible…”

Whatever happened to the slavish life of backbreaking steel mining and the rugged charm of overworked bootstraps? This is terrible, indeed!

Leisure of the underclass: ill-effect of free market globalization.

Please tell me he’s kidding, too.