True Blue, Or Too Blue?

Lamont knows that he mustn't come across as a one-issue candidate. He has elaborate position papers, available on his Web site, on everything from civil liberties to the situation in the Middle East. (He thinks, for example, that Bush should have been censured over the NSA eavesdropping issue; he thinks the president has squandered so much of the country's prestige in Iraq that it can't play the role of mediator elsewhere in the region.) They are the views of a fiscal conservative, a social liberal and a foreign-policy moderate. He is a few degrees to the right, generally speaking, of the bloggers who have championed him.

But the war in Iraq is the only issue that consistently rouses a crowd. It's the reason anyone knows his name. Without it, Lieberman would be foxtrotting to a fourth term. The war alone, however, does not explain the strength of the revolt against Lieberman, which might have started with some bloggers but has spread far beyond.

"This has been mischaracterized as a one-issue campaign," says George Jepsen, who was majority leader in the Connecticut state senate for six years. Jepsen lays out the case against Lieberman: He embraced the whole "culture of life" concept during the Terry Schiavo controversy, he didn't fight hard enough against the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, he favors school vouchers.

More than anything, Jepsen says, he's just too cozy with Republicans, particularly the president, who infamously gave Lieberman a comradely buss on the cheek at the State of the Union speech last year. A DVD distributed by the Lamont campaign is a highlight reel of news reports about the White House calling Lieberman its favorite Democrat.

"I like Joe, I respect him, I know these are issues of conscience. But his values are totally out of step with those of mainstream Democrats," Jepsen says. "No one is asking him to vote the party line all the time. But why should Democrats vote for someone who on a whole range of issues doesn't share their values? Why have a party if we're expected to fall into line behind someone who falls into line behind someone from South Carolina or Georgia?"

There are a lot of Democrats who believe that for too long, theirs has been the neurotic party -- the one willing to doubt, grapple and worry about whether it is right. You cross a guy like Cheney, he never returns your calls. You cross a guy like Clinton, you get nominated to run as vice president. The anti-Lieberman forces look with envy at the way the Republicans began a lengthy resurrection in the mid-'60s, with a unified message, strong themes and candidates willing to risk an unpopular position. They think what the Democrats need is less bipartisanship and more discipline.

Lieberman's supporters call this madness.

John Droney, who was Democratic state chairman in Connecticut for six years, says Lieberman is exactly the sort of candidate the party should nurture, because of his broad appeal. The bloggers, he says, want to "bring Lieberman's head down to Washington on a pike to warn others who might not toe the Politburo's party line." They want a "prime minister of New England." They are creating a party with no room for centrists. It's the Democrats, in his view, who don't tolerate dissent.

"You can never examine the merits of the positions, you can never vary," he fumes. "That is why we're a bicoastal party and that is why we are a bunch of losers."

You Don't Know Joe

Reading the pro-Lamont blogs, you get the impression that Joe Lieberman is afraid of showing his face in Connecticut and that when he does, nobody wants to see it. This isn't exactly true.

On Friday the 64-year-old lawmaker began driving around the state in a huge green bus, emblazoned with the words "Joe's Tomorrow Tour." On Sunday he pulled up to the Irish Festival in Glastonbury and took a stroll.

It was Sahara hot, and hard to hear anything because of a rock band blasting U2 covers. Lieberman inched across a big green field, grinning and back-slapping, slowed by a scrum of reporters and well-wishers. Some wanted to shake hands, others wanted a photo. One guy wore an "I'm sticking with Joe" T-shirt. Most people offered a noncommittal "Good luck."

Sen. Joe Biden showed up a few minutes later. The Delaware Democrat had been scheduled to appear at a Connecticut event a few weeks back but didn't make it -- he said he missed a train -- leading to speculation that Lieberman had gone so toxic that his colleagues wouldn't stump for him. Then last week, Bill Clinton turned up at a Lieberman rally, telling the audience, "He is a good Democrat, he is a good man and he'll do you proud."

"That visit was a turning point," Lieberman said in a quick interview on Sunday. He'd made his way to an outdoor bar, where he was handed a Guinness. "We're going to be all right. I can feel it here. Regular, working, middle-class Democrats, they appreciate my service. They're not going to vote on one issue."

Has the vitriol of the campaign surprised him?

"There's too much hatred, mostly on the other side, toward me," he said. "You can disagree, obviously, but I think hatred is not healthy for our political system or the country."

Lieberman knows he's at war but he is masterly at projecting an aura of inevitability, the unruffled ease that says of course I'm going to win. And one way or another, he very well might. Connecticut has 844,000 registered independents, more than either Republicans or Democrats. (The Republican in the race, Alan Schlesinger, has attracted little attention, unless you count the stories about his gambling troubles.) Watching Lieberman in the only debate in the campaign, televised on MSNBC, was like watching a street gang take on a Cub Scout. Except that Lieberman's somewhat pious tone suggested that the whupping wasn't for fun but for the good of mankind. Don't give my job to this idiot, Lieberman's every word and gesture suggested. Leave it to a professional.

Lamont admits he wasn't ready for the onslaught.

"I watched him with Cheney," he says of the vice presidential debate six years ago. "It was all 'My worthy adversary, my esteemed colleague.' It was right out of the House of Lords. Some people say I should have pushed back a little harder, but my nature is my nature."

Asked if maybe obnoxious just isn't his style, he rolls his eyes a bit. He knows where nice guys finish, and it isn't in the Senate. "Oh, I can see the headline now," he says. " 'Ned Lamont: Too Decent for Politics.' "