Lieberman has just conceded the race to Lamont and I have tears streaming down my face. David really did slay Goliath on this one, and I have been afraid to hope, because all of us have been disappointed before and it seemed as if the GOP would coddle Joey the chosen one. This is a victory for all progressives and I am thinking maybe there is hope that we can turn this ship around before it runs aground on the neoconservative agenda. Congratulations to Ned, his family as well as his extended family of netroots bloggers who have helped to push on to victory! Let's hope that this victory is the sign that all is not lost and we can take our country back from the warmongers and corporate interests.

PNACers..? AIPAC members..?

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to notice that it's a bit strange for a United States Senator to be so influenced by a foreign country. And when the USA is fighting a war of occupation at the behest of said foreign country, then an incumbent being voted out of office isn't so remarkable.

That's a good point, that the reason so many entrenched incumbents are for Pious Joe is that they see his defeat the possible start of something really disastrous: the end of incumbency entitlement to at least their party's nomination.

That would be a truly radical idea, with effects more more profound than perhaps Greenwald realizes.

If the certainty of renomination by incumbents is threatened, then so too is the influence of lobbyists; lobbyists can and often do hedge their bets in tight races by supporting both candidates, but that is a lot harder to do with several viable primary candidates running against an incumbent.

That could be almost as effective as candidates finding ways to exploit the campaign funds of their opponents, causing those contributions to backfire.

Campaign financing "reform" laws are useless; they are written by the same pols who would be affected by them, and wide loopholes are inevitable.

Analysis like this is why I just renewed my premium subscription yesterday for another year. Why isn't the 'liberal media' talking about this? The Tuesday primary is such a very important litmus test. Perhaps hope is on the way after all.

Why don't you just stop reading War Room until Tim comes back? It's the same result as "closing up shop" for you without messing things up for the rest of us.

Ramus - not much time to write, BUT, you said it all!!!!!

Thanks, shelby

The MSM players all have a sense of where their bread is buttered. Not only theirs personally, but the fact that they all work for organizations built on relationships between their bosses and the powers-that-be. It's easy to see where a wink and a nudge is all that is required to let anyone new to the system know that some stories are just not to be pursued. It's not the kind of conspiracy that requires everyone to sit down and make sure they're all on the same page--it's just something that all journalist now practice as they work to get their own private McMansion on Nantucket Island with Chris Matthews and the other millionaire pundits.

The old school journalists roll in their graves as all the network news depts follow FOX and Rupert Murdoch down the dollar lined path to connections that provide security in the New Republican One-party Govt. And when young journalist start their careers, they dream of having a window office and a face that is recognized, regardless of what that requires.

The Press as addressed by the Constitution, that vital cog in the properly functioning Constitutional Democracy, is at least temporarily non-existent. Sure we still have places to go to get The Facts, but as long as the vast majority of Americans still look to popular corporate-owned infotainment news with a distinctive right-wing agenda behind it, The Press is a defacto propaganda arm of our corporate-owned govt.

Only when enough of us realize that we can only get The Facts from sources outside the corporate monopoly, and enough of us avail ourselves of said sources to matter in elections, will we see a reinstated Press that funstions as the Costitution requires for ahealthy democracy.

As all polling insiders know, Lamont being up 51-45 against a well known incumbent like Lieberman means he's really up something like 54-46.

I thoroughly enjoy your in-house blogs, even when they go off the deep end (maybe especially then). However, I am not paying to read the work of guest bloggers, and I am concerned that the practice of having them fill in is becoming too routine. I'm sure people need vacations, and I'm all for them taking them, but it's really OK to close up shop for a few days, especially on War Room. Let the other chickens guard their own bloghouses.

Thank you again from a long-time subscriber!

Ever since the 1970's, when the government reacted to the Post's aggressive Watergate reporting by changing their whistleblower laws (amongst other things), reporters who wish to have access have increasingly been required to form personal relationships with those in power. A big part of why those MSM reporters want Lieberman to win is that he represents 18 years of effort on their part to gain access to him. Those reporters who have been most successful in acquiring this access are those who have risen to the "top" of their chosen profession (much like pond scum really). The casualty of this relationship is the death of the notion of speaking truth to power. After all, if you offend Joe by telling him that his new best buddies' pet war is not only morally wrong, but strategically suicidal, he might not invite you around next time he has a cocktail party, and he might just hang up next time you call him asking for an exclusive interview.

The most basic brand of conservatism is conserving the staus quo and keeping things the way they are. In this sense, not only are all politicians now conservative, but so are the entrenched Beltway/NY City pundit class. The MSM have an ingrained sense of their dependence on preserving the staus quo, and have lost any willingness to pursue stories that might ultimately lead to the kinds of change that would upset their gravy train. As I follow all the horror stories of war, corruption, incompetence, acquisition of monarchic powers and on and on, I find myself wondering where the media are who are supposed to shout these threats to our way of life from the rooftops. When congress are able to count on reelection at rates comparable to, as you say, poliburo members, we've reached a point where our system of lobbyist-funded elections allows corporate control of govt becomes absolute. We can no longer count on the inherent factionalism built into The Constitution by the founders to protect us from someone out to convert our democracy into a plutocracy, which if you pay attention to who benefits from all the legislation coming out of congress, we now effectively have.

I like to think a Lamont win might crack that structure, but I have a feeling the media will rally 'round the system and villify Lamont to discourage any such future adventurism on the part of upstarts, or some such self-preservation maneuver.

Keep plugging away at it just the same. You've certainly established a beachhead. Hold it long enough and we just might be able to storm the ramparts yet.