Am I Still Here?

Well, life and work have swamped me until now, and this is just a brief respite until I go out on the road again in November.

Since I will be out of state on Election Day, I voted early at the local library. Very nice, new electronic voting machines and no lines to speak of...hooray!

I voted for a Democrat for the first time in years...for Governor. Phil Bredeson has been a good guy as far as I can tell and I see no need to vote a Republican in just because he's a Republican.

I'm not at all a fan of the current crop of national Democrats, they are every bit as partisan and extremist as the Pat Buchanans, David Dukes, Strom Thurmonds and whatever far right-wing pol you want to name ever were. Maybe even worse, since they are allowing and abetting a purge of Democrats who "are not liberal enough".

To think that Joe Lieberman, the Vice Presidential nominee of 6 years ago, had to leave the Democrat party and run as an Independent due to his stand on one issue - the War on Terror - is mind-blowing. That this good man is "no longer a Democrat" - even though he is a reliable liberal, Jewish Senator from Connecticut - is actually a little scary. What happened to the Democrat's Big Tent I heard so much about? What happened to celebrating diversity? What happened to nuance?

Slate has an article that explores what will happen should Lieberman win entitled: Is Joe Lieberman Still a Democrat?

Of course, once the motivated left-wingers got Ned Lamont nominated in the run-off, the rest of the electorate suddenly remembered why they have been sending Lieberman to Washington for so long, and he leads Lamont by 14 points in the recent polls. We'll see who shows up on Election Day: the anti-war party-purgers or more traditional Dems. Good Luck, Joe!