As expected, upscale Connecticut liberals eked out a narrow win over their more moderate blue collar co-religionists to nominate another Northeastern blue-blood to represent the "party of the little guy..."

The spin has started big time (including mine?). The reality is that this is not a good day for Democrats and I think they know it. It is not as they say, a message about the Iraq war--everybody knows that the chi-chi liberals of the Northeast were and are against the war--who cares? The Ned Lamonts of the world "don't do" military service under any circumstances. Its a temper tantrum--and nothing made that clearer than the respective statements of Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont.

Lamont said nothing memorable, but Lieberman made an unassailable point--he was punished for doing essentially what a politician should do--keeping the lines of communication open with the opposing party in order to find a way to get the work of the Senate done. What's Lamont going to do--stamp his feet until he gets his way?

Publicly, other Democrat office-holders are going to pledge their support to the nominee of the party, but privately I think there will be considerable subrosa support for Lieberman. Life just got much more difficult for Democrat politicians hoping to "centrist" their way to the presidency.

On the other hand--Cynthia McKinney went down for the count, which is objectively a good thing for the Democrats. An embarrassment removed. Now on to Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee and the rest of the kook conga line. Given a generation or two, the Democrat party could look like a collection of thoughtful individuals...