How did his party "betray" Lieberman? By not renominating him? Did Reagan "betray" Jerry Ford when he primaried him in 1976? Did Pat Toomey "betray" Snarlin' Arlen? This is silliness. I'm all for primary fights in the Republican Party -- nobody has the right to an uncontested seat.
It came from the top of the Party to take Lieberman out.
It wasn’t a grass roots effort to get rid of him. It was the political machine running him over.
And he showed that a third party candidate CAN win in an election. The will of the wrongheaded Party be damned.
No one went crazy over David Bonior---- He WAS pro-life---and, as it should have been, Republicans treated him as the liberal democrat that he was (is).
No, I think that you can say 'betray' legitimately here for the following reasons;
1) Senator Lieberman has been such a staunch Democrat that he was the Dem's chosen VP Candidate in 2000.
2) He was running as a standard-bearing Democrat in the Conn. Primary in 2006.
3) The standard process of the National Democrats in such cases is to squelch internal opposition and give money to the incumbents.
4) Senator Lieberman was denied almost all such support and his opponent was given that support in the primary based almost solely upon their respective Iraq War positions!
5) Senator Lieberman was re-elected as an alternate "Connecticut_for_Lieberman" candidate and was supported by independents and Republicans as well as non-radical Democrats.
To my mind he was 'betrayed' by the national Dimocrat Party based solely upon his refusal to cut_&_run from Iraq!