Has anyone thought that this is the beginning of the break up of the Democratic party. There are conservative Democrats out there, both socially and fiscally. They are looking to lay their hats on a party that represents their values. Hey! they may not like the Republican party, but they like many of its core beliefs.('Zell Miller' comes to mind.) This has been going on for 30 years. It's part of what was the Reagan Revolution. Anyway it is a thought to ponder, we my see a new party based on disgruntled Democrats who don't want to jump to the Republican party.
It'll basically come down to one of the following.
1) Hard left wins and the Dems become a permanent minority party within a few more election cycles.
2) Lieberman wins and retakes the Democrat party for Truman/FDR/JFK Democrats.
3) Lieberman is forced to lead a "new" party, which will probably consist of pro-WOT/American Liberal Democrats and Liberal Republicans.
I'd rather one of the last two happen. I don't mind fighting Liberalism. Sure, Republicans can't make unforced errors with a stronger Liberal Party and expect to win but it'll sharpen our senses and I think we can take them philosophically in the end. In the interim of the fight at least they won't be joining forces with the terrorists.
The first means the Rep Party will stuggle not to atrophy against meager intellectual offerings by the opposition, and that the Hard Left will keep doing things like leaking national security secrets.