Liberal bloggers rip party over Lamont

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National Democrats have abandoned their anti-war Senate candidate in Connecticut, say liberal bloggers who earlier this year were heavily courted by top Democrats in their quest to take over Congress.

Democratic nominee Ned Lamont -- darling of the left-wing blogosphere -- now trails Sen. Joe Lieberman by 10 points or more, and the highly energized bloggers who helped win him the nomination in August blame the national party.

Matt Stoller, a District-based blogger, wondered this week why Mr. Lamont is getting trounced.

"Well there are a number of reasons, but among the most prominent is the total abandonment of Lamont by the party establishment," he wrote in a blog posting at Direct Democracy (www.mydd.com). "Let's be very clear -- this is not Lamont that they are abandoning, it's the party primary voters that they are abandoning."

Liberal vitriol in recent weeks has been directed at some of the Democratic Party's most beloved figures, such as former President Bill Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York and even rising star Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

"We have all been angry for some years now about being stabbed in the back by the Democratic Party in Washington," liberal blogger Sandra Yolles wrote in the comment field to Mr. Stoller's post. "We are angry that they have not fought for our values, for our ideals, for our Constitution, for honest elections, for the people who elected them."

The liberal blogosphere is filled with accusations that national Democrats helped Mr. Lamont only half-heartedly, failed to infuse his campaign with cash and couldn't resist effusively praising Mr. Lieberman even after he lost the Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama has been the focus of particular scorn for not campaigning in Connecticut against Mr. Lieberman.

An open letter to Mr. Obama posted on the Daily Kos blog (www.dailykos.com) implored him to do all he can to defeat Mr. Lieberman.

"Why you would want to spend another day in the Senate with the duplicitous, war-mongering Joe Lieberman is beyond me," the author wrote.

But perhaps the deepest perceived wound came from Mr. Reid, who reportedly has promised Mr. Lieberman that he will keep his seniority in the caucus if he wins in the midterm elections.

Mr. Stoller concludes that "Democratic Senators are moral lepers, weaklings, and that is the only reason we aren't further ahead ... The Democratic Senate leaders will sell us out at every opportunity, be it torture, Iraq, [Supreme Court Justice Samuel A.] Alito, Lieberman, the Bankruptcy Bill or stopping war with Iran."

Ms. Yolles added, "We must not let them continue to think they can get away with the lie -- the lie that they are representing us."

Such anger is a far cry from the elation with which Mr. Reid was included in the YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas earlier this year.

"Sen. Reid doesn't just have his finger on the pulse of American politics ... in many ways he is the pulse of American politics," organizers wrote at the time on the Daily Kos Web site. "We are humbled by his acceptance, and we hope you'll be as excited as we are to have him address our community in person."

Still, Mr. Stoller said, he's hopeful that Mr. Lamont will pull off a victory.

"We can win this fight, as the polls are tightening," he wrote. "But it would be a whole lot easier without that knife in our back."