I voted around 9:30 am at DHS....no Lieberman people, a couple of Lamont supporters handing out cards. I spoke briefly with one of the men, who said he'd spoken with a number of people who agreed with the entire litany of reasons to oppose Joe and people AGREED yet said they were casting votes for Joe to avoid a 3-way race. One can only presume those voters will, in large part, support Ned in the general.

Well I didn't think it was possible, but Nancy Johnson has reached a new low. In her new TV ad, Johnson attempts to use the tragic events of September 11th for her own political advantage. The commercial features a woman who lost her son on 9/11 explaining how Nancy Johnson was there for her and "really cares." The most despicable part of the ad, however, comes when Johnson recreates the memorial service in order to show herself comforting the grieving woman. How morbid is that?

Make no mistake, my heart goes out to anyone who lost loved ones on 9/11. But Nancy Johnson taking advantage of someone else's loss for political purposes is the worst form of exploitation and pandering. How does Nancy Johnson's conscience allow her to ask a grieving mother to recreate her son's memorial service so that it may be used for a television commercial?

Step aside, Joe Lieberman.

On Tuesday night, Connecticut voters went with a fresh political face, an engaging, intelligent and seemingly kind-hearted Democrat named Ned Lamont, who ran essentially a one-issue campaign with clarity of purpose, with respect to his opponent, and with plenty of state and national support.

Most every newspaper in the state endorsed your re-election, Joe, including this one. So did a lot of Democratic voters -- 135,000 of them, to be exact. But it wasn't enough. Lamont gathered 10,000 more votes than you did from an amalgam of people who dislike President Bush, feel your career has run its course, and who are convinced the war in Iraq is a mistake that we will never be able to rectify.

Your position, senator, is that you will continue your quest for re-election by running as a third-party candidate, hoping to pick off enough unaffiliated and Republican voters -- and hold onto your Democratic backers -- to eke out a November victory over Lamont and Republican Alan Schlesinger.
Ironically, you may in fact win this way if you push onward. But you shouldn't continue.

If you are successful, Joe, your next term would be difficult to say the least. You have said you will caucus as a Democrat, which means siding with the party whose voters just chose your opponent in your home state. You would meet regularly with Democratic colleagues and leaders who today are asking you to reconsider an independent candidacy, and who publicly and repeatedly will support Lamont between now and November.

You could, in fact, owe your re-election to Connecticut Republicans -- people who largely support the president and his decision to invade Iraq. Yet, Connecticut Democrats rejected you Tuesday night because they feel just the opposite -- they want out of Iraq, and they are angry at the man who put our troops in harm's way there.
It would be an untenable fourth term, an ignoble swan song for a senator who has earned a reputation over 18 years as a man of principle and integrity.

There are other mountains to climb, Joe Lieberman, and we have no doubt you will scale them. Please put your party, your state and your country before your career and step aside. Lamont won the primary, he has an opponent, and we'd learn soon enough whether one of them can fill your shoes.