Poor Ol' Joe & The Donk Roundup

For Senator Joe Lieberman, there is good news, bad news, good news, and bad news.

First, the good news - the latest Middle East war has motivated Lieberman's Israelfile supporters to pony up in support of one of the staunchest pro-Israel votes in the U.S. Senate (via CQ):

Pro-Israel groups, afraid of losing one of their staunchest supporters in Congress, are pouring money into beleaguered Senator Joe Lieberman's campaign as he tries to fend off a tougher-than-expected primary challenge. ...

Pro-Israel political action committees have donated to the Connecticut senator's campaign and have urged their national membership to give generously now and later, if Lieberman is forced to run as an unaffiliated candidate.

"Joe Lieberman, without exception, no conditions ... is the #1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in Congress," said Mark Vogel, chairman of the National Action Committee, a pro-Israel political action committee. "There is nobody who does more on behalf of Israel than Joe Lieberman. That is why he is incredibly important to the pro-Israel community."

Now, the bad news - poor ol' Joe has fallen behind in his primary race against Kos-hack challenger Ned Lamont:

Anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont has surged to a razor-thin 51%-47% lead over incumbent Senator Joseph Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 55%-40% lead for Senator Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters in a June 8 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. ...

"Lamont has turned what looked like a blowout into a very close Democratic primary race," said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D.

"Lamont is up, while Lieberman's Democratic support is dropping. More Democrats have a favorable opinion of Lamont, who was largely unknown last month, and see him as an acceptable alternative to Lieberman.

Back to the good news - the same poll found that in a three-way race between Democrat Lamont, Republican Alan Schlesinger, and Independent Lieberman, the incumbent senator would win in a rout:

In a three-way race against Lamont and Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger, Lieberman gets 51% of the vote. Lamont only gets 27%, a 24-point gap. Schlesinger gets the die-hard GOP votes at 9%, which speaks volumes about both the candidate and the party in Connecticut.

With that kind of support from the general electorate, Lieberman can (and likely will) argue that his independent bid is justified by popular sentiment. And while Lamont has made himself a darling of the hard Left in Connecticut, it doesn't translate into a November win.

I'll say. No wonder even as neoBolshevik a Dem as Lieberman colleague Babs Boxer is campaigning for him. The Left nutroots claim they want power back more than anything, but to win elections means the toleration of some degree of philosophical impurity. But they are willing to throw away a perfectly safe senate seat (sort of) because the latter is more unacceptable to them than the failure to attain the former. They would rather lose than compromise in the slightest. Yet they also claim that that is their path to victory.

Reports the AmSpec Prowler:

There are a number of what we'll call "reasonable" Democrats in Washington and elsewhere watching the Lieberman race closely, not so much because of what it means for Lieberman, but for what the outcome means for the party and the 2008 presidential race. "I don't think people on the far left understand what they are doing," says a Washington-based Democrat political consultant. "It's alarming to a lot of us, and we're not sure why it isn't alarming to more people within the party hierarchy."

Are there still people out there who wonder why the Donk base is called "nutters"?

And now the rest of the bad news - and, if it extends into the general election campaign in the fall, Lieberman's political death knell:

In a surprise move, former President Bill Clinton will campaign for Senator Joe Lieberman in the Democrat's closely contested primary race in Connecticut.

Clinton plans to speak on Lieberman's behalf at an event in Waterbury on Monday afternoon, according to the senator's spokesperson Marion Steinfels.

"We are thrilled to have President Clinton come to the state to campaign for Senator Lieberman," said Steinfels. "It is not only a big day for our campaign, but it is a big day for Waterbury and Connecticut."

But a disaster for her boss' primary chances. Or has she forgotten that every - and I do mean EVERY - Democrat on whose behalf Bill Clinton has ever campaigned - aside from himself - has gone down to defeat?

What a pathetic display that Waterbury stage will be on Monday. Sick Willie in all his mugging, glad-handing, limelight-hogging glory - will anybody even notice that Lieberman is in the building? Or that the event is a Lieberman rally?

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In other DisLoyal Opposition news....

***Donk Congressette Cynthia "Cop-Beater" McKinney (D-Attica) is poised to get ousted from the House of Representatives for the second time in four years after getting forced into a runoff with a nobody named Hank Johnson, whose only evident advantage in the contest is that he isn't dumber than a box of hair.

***Bill Clinton really has done it all - which now includes provoking African-American protests outside his palatial Harlem offices. It seems that "the first black president," having generated a lot of publicity and money and such, had the effect of goosing property values in Harlem beyond what a lot of real black folks could afford, and they don't like it very much. Or, put more viscerally, they've come to see Mr. Bill for what he really is: just another rich, white, liberal exploiter.

But if he ran for mayor of New York, they've vote for him in a, well, "New York minute." How else would they get him out of Harlem?

***Well, now we know what the purpose of Valerie Wilson's lawsuit is - to keep her book deal on life support. And maybe to provide its final chapter.

One way or the other.