Why are bloggers targeting Lieberman?

As U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., races to fend off a stiff primary from anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, Washington's chattering class has been chattering. A lot. And a common refrain has been how the left's furious assault on the centrist Lieberman is an ideological witch-hunt, an attempt to cleanse the party of heretics, and -- just maybe -- a fight over the future of the Democratic Party.

"This isn't a fight between left and right," New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote earlier this month. "It's a fight about how politics should be conducted... What's happening to Lieberman can only be described as a liberal inquisition."

Added Morton Kondracke in Roll Call: "This is no exaggeration: The soul of the Democratic Party -- and possibly the future of civility in American politics -- is on the line in the Aug. 8 Senate primary in Connecticut."

It's not hard to see why some have arrived at this conclusion. Just look at some of the recent postings on the prominent liberal weblog Daily Kos, where posters have blasted Lieberman for his unflinching support for the Iraq war and his embrace of President Bush (both figuratively and literally). One poster on the site wrote: "Joe W. Lieberbush is a right-wing Rethug masquerading as a moderate Democrat." Said another: "Lieberman is a poor excuse for a man, and even a poorer excuse for a Democratic Senator. He lost his heart a long time ago when he sold out to Bush and the neocons."

‘We need this seat’
Those who see the Lieberman-Lamont contest as a liberal inquisition or a battle for the soul of the Democratic party tend to forget one thing: that outside of this particular race, the left-wing blogosphere this election cycle has often been more concerned about winning races against Republicans than battling over ideology -- which perhaps shouldn't be surprising given that Democrats don't control either chamber of Congress and haven't won the last two presidential elections.

"There's more pragmatism among the bloggers than they get credit for," says Chuck Todd, editor-in-chief of The Hotline, a nonpartisan political newsletter.

Same boat, different class
Case in point: the much-hyped Senate race in Pennsylvania, where liberals have embraced Democrat Bob Casey, despite his conservative views on abortion and gun rights. The reason why is because Casey has a very good chance of defeating an archenemy to liberals, conservative Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.  "Like it or not, Casey has the clearest path to victory of any Dem Senate challenger this cycle," wrote liberal blogger and founder of the Daily Kos blog, Markos Moulitsas, after Casey came out in support of then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. "We need this seat."

Or take the Virginia's Senate race, where Moulitsas and other liberal bloggers supported the Democratic primary campaign of former Reagan Navy Secretary James Webb. While Webb has vocally opposed the Iraq war (and used his military credentials to bolster his argument), he's also a former Republican who backed President Bush and U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., in 2000 -- hardly your typical Democrat. But bloggers, and also the Democratic establishment, saw Webb as the best chance to defeat the incumbent Allen in the fall.

And then there is Nebraska's Ben Nelson, widely regarded as the Senate's most conservative Democrat, whose re-election campaign is running a television ad that features President Bush praising him. The left hasn't laid a finger on the Nebraska Democrat.

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