Who’d’a thunk it? NY Times endorses Lamont!

Win or lose on August 8, no one will be able to say that Ned Lamont didn’t come a long, long way in his race against Joe “Mentum” Lieberman.  When Lamont started his campaign, he was almost literally a nobody taking on one of the best-known (in light of Joementum’s vice-presidential and presidential runs) and best-financed incumbent Democrats in the country.  A bunch of lefty bloggers seemed to be the only ones excited about his candidacy.  Pundits as insightful as your own BMG editors gave him little chance of winning.  Now, polls show a dead heat, and no one is assuming that Lieberman is walking to victory.

Tomorrow, the grey lady herself weighs in – on the side of the bloggers.  In Sunday’s paper, the New York Times endorses Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman for Senate.  Here’s some of the editorial:

The race has taken on a national character. Mr. Lieberman’s friends see it as an attempt by hysterical antiwar bloggers to oust a giant of the Senate for the crime of bipartisanship. Lamont backers — most of whom seem more passionate about being Lieberman opponents — say that as one of the staunchest supporters of the Iraq war, Mr. Lieberman has betrayed his party by cozying up to President Bush….

Mr. Lieberman is not just a senator who works well with members of the other party. And there is a reason that while other Democrats supported the war, he has become the only target. In his effort to appear above the partisan fray, he has become one of the Bush administration’s most useful allies as the president tries to turn the war on terror into an excuse for radical changes in how this country operates….

At this moment, with a Republican president intent on drastically expanding his powers with the support of the Republican House and Senate, it is critical that the minority party serve as a responsible, but vigorous, watchdog. That does not require shrillness or absolutism. But this is no time for a man with Mr. Lieberman’s ability to command Republicans’ attention to become their enabler, and embrace a role as the president’s defender….

  If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.

Mr. Lamont, a wealthy businessman from Greenwich, seems smart and moderate, and he showed spine in challenging the senator while other Democrats groused privately. He does not have his opponent’s grasp of policy yet. But this primary is not about Mr. Lieberman’s legislative record. Instead it has become a referendum on his warped version of bipartisanship, in which the never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for silence and inaction. We endorse Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for Senate in Connecticut.

Well, well, well.  What a long strange trip it’s been.  But it’s not over yet.  We here in MA can’t vote for Mr. Lamont on August 8.  But there are things we can do.  And so, with apologies to Kos (hope he doesn’t mind my borrowing his icons), here are your options:

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