NED LAMONT'S challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman in next month's Connecticut primary has blossomed into a full-scale Democratic civil war. What's at stake is the legitimacy of partisanship.

. . . [I]f Lieberman's allies are irritating and often wrongheaded, alas, his enemies are worse. They have consigned large chunks of the center-left to enemy status. It is an odd way to go about building a majority.

This is the strangest of statements to me. As I understand it, Ned Lamont and his supporters have pledged to support Joe Lieberman should he capture the Democratic nomination on August 8. That qualifies as enemy status these days? How very bizarre. So running a primary challenge is the ultimate betrayal now?

Lieberman has always had the propensity of making his critics look good and his defenders look bad. And so it is again. Jon Chait must look back on his writings this summer and feel supremely foolish given Joe Lieberman's performance. In July, Chait wrote:

The whole anti-Lieberman blog campaign has a self-fulfilling quality: They charge that Lieberman isn't a Democrat, they drive him from the party, and they declare themselves to be correct. The more ex-Democrats they create, the more sure of their own virtue they become.

Ed Kilgore discusses the events since Tuesday which must make any honest centrist Democrat cringe for having supported Lieberman at all:

You'd think from what we're hearing this week from Republicans all over the country that Joseph Lieberman is indeed the Bush Lite politician that his Democratic detractors insist he is. Virtually every major national Republican pol has weighed in with crocodile tears for Lieberman's narrow primary loss. And in a really odd development, Senate Republican candidates have begun endorsing Lieberman's indie run in Connecticut.

I can't imagine that these hugs and kisses are any more welcome in Liebermanland than was Bush's famous "kiss" at State of the Union Address. It's not like Joe needs Republican help in Connecticut; in the absence of a viable GOP candidate in the race, there's not a whole lot of doubt that Nutmeg State Republicans would overwhelmingly prefer Lieberman over Lamont in November without any encouragement from on high. And all the love directed at the incumbent from national Republicans could seriously erode his support among Democrats and independents . . . The GOP's love for Lieberman is just for one night. And he should inform them to go home and grow up.

(Emphasis supplied.) There are a couple noteworthy things about Ed's piece. First he wonders why the national GOP is doing this as it makes the sledding more difficult for Joe. I am surprised at Ed's wonder. The GOP is doing this because they think it helps their chances nationally. They could not care less about Joe's chances. But they know their boy -- they know Joe loves to be aggrieved and play the martyr. They knew Joe would echo their sentiments and welcome their support. He is a pathetic human being in that way. He laps up any praise from any quarter. Indeed, it is what has led to his downfall. Ed says Joe should inform the GOP "to go home and grow up." Don't hold your breath Ed.

As mcjoan at daily kos documented, Joe did exactly as the GOP expected he would do, he embraced their narrative, attacking Democratic voters in Connecticut and Democrats across the nation:

Here is how Republicans discussed the Lieberman win:

It's an unfortunate development, I think, from the standpoint of the Democratic Party, to see a man like Lieberman pushed aside because of his willingness to support an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy," Mr. Cheney said in a telephone interview with news service reporters. . . . He cast Mr. Lieberman's loss in ominous terms, suggesting that it would hearten American terrorist enemies. Terrorists, he said, are "betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."

Embracing "The Kiss." And Republicans across the country echoed Cheney's sentiments.

Here is how Joe discussed the choice made by the voters of Connecticut who chose someone other than him:

If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out [of Iraq] by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."

The "Kiss" strikes again. Republicans and their new best friend have made the choice clear for the voters, in Connecticut and across the country.

The Republicans are not surprised that Joe is mimicking their talking points. The Left blogs are not surprised. Only Folks like Chait and Ed Kilgore are surprised. They have never understood what Republicans and the Left blogs always have - Joe Lieberman detests the Democratic Party and Democrats. Joe Lieberman believes in one thing - adulation for Joe. Again, mcjoan captures what Joe is about:

So this is the Lieberman Principle. What is good for Joe is good. When it is good for Joe to criticize the President, then it is good to criticize the President. Only then. When it is good for Joe to be partisan, then it is good to be partisan. Only then. When it is good for Joe to abandon the Democratic party, then it is good. Only then.

The Lieberman Principle: If it is good for Joe, then it is good. Only then.

The Left blogs figured this out a long time ago. It is not clear that Chait, Kilgore and the rest ever will.