Lieberman couldn't have run a worse campaign if he tried. This is a closed primary: only Democrats can vote. They are accusing him of not being Democrat enough. So Lieberman send a flyer to Democrats in the mail that says he's their "Mule in the Senate" and he's working for them. Hello? A mule is half a donkey. This is just one minor example. Lieberman is scared of being heckled, so he doesn't preannounce campaign rallies and then no one shows up for them. Seriously, his ground game and his tactics have been astonishingly bad.
Next, people say that Lieberman being challenged is just like Chafee or Specter. Well, yes and no. I don't recall Chafee or Specter being a Veep candidate. I've never seen either of those guys as even remotely considered a leader of the Republicans.
Lieberman is liberal. He voted for the Iraq war, but other than that, there's not a lot of difference in the views of him and Lamont. Lamont has never worked in politics beyond local level in Greenwich, CT (population 60,000, and wealthy, albeit with some pockets of not so well to do).
Lamont is going to be far left, and since all his money comes from either his own deep pockets or from individual donors, he's going to stay that way if he gets elected. He'll be like Bernie Sanders or Feingold. And he's going to make the DailyKos moonbats really excited, expect them to launch all kinds of primary challenges against anyone who doesn't toe the party line completely.
There are advantages to Republicans if Lieberman wins on Tuesday, but there are as many advantages if Lamont wins on Tuesday and Lieberman goes Independent. (And if Lieberman doesn't go Indy, there are also advantages). And of course there are disadvantages. I'm not what scenario is best, to be honest.
Lieberman winning on Tuesday is going to drive the DailyKos people crazy. They will likely sit out November's election, since the RINO Gov is going to cruise to victory. That race is a lost cause for the Dems, and with Lieberman on the ticket, that won't be inspiring for them. This will help local Republican candidates.
Lamont winning and then Lieberman going Independent will suck a lot of money from other races, both locally and nationally. But it'll help turnout on election day for the Dems, although many of them won't be voting a straight ticket as they vote for Lieberman and the RINO Gov. A Lamont-Lieberman matchup will also use a lot of volunteers: the other Democrat campaigns are going to have a shortage of people working those campaigns.
And Lieberman losing and then not filing to run as an Indy has to hit the national party hard: the Veep candidate from six years ago gets tossed out.
So what's the best scenario for a Republican? I honestly don't know. (Well, if you really want to know, here it is: Lamont wins the primary. Then on October 25th, he flees the country to avoid prosecution for stock fraud. Then the Democrats won't have him around, but will have already spent a ton of money, and the volunteers will already have been used up, and few Dems would show up on primary day. So if you really want to root for something, root for that scenario. If that scenario sounds far-fetched, it is. But of course, in 2000, the Republican candidate turned out to be a pedophile, and in 2006, the Republican candidate has gotten kicked out of two casinos in NJ and one casino in CT and had to be chased down by two casinos in NJ to settle his $20,000 gambling debt. So in CT politics, anything is possible. Oh, and the Bridgeport mayor is an admitted user of cocaine, but the last Bridgeport mayor is in prison. And our ex-governor is out of Prison).
Liberman might be liberal, but, unlike many other liberals in the Senate, he certainly is a man of his convictions and his love for his country in the midst of a war. Connecticut can thank Liberman for saving the submarine base at New London and Electric Boat too. It was on the BRAC list last year and the Navy really wants to pull its boat building down to Pascagoula where there are more modern facilities in place. Had Lamont been there instead, you could kiss a big chunk of the economy goodbye.