http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/08/01/hey_joe.html#moreOne of the most closely watched primary races takes place next week, as the three-term Democratic senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, battles a strong challenge from a political neophyte, Ned Lamont, a millionaire cable television executive. Mr Lieberman could well be out on his ear in one of those periodic "battles for the heart and soul" of the Democratic party. Mr Lieberman, Al Gore's running mate in the 2004 White House race, has the support of his party's big names from Senator Joseph Biden to Senator Chris Dodd. Mr Lamont has the enthusiastic backing of the Howard Dean constituency of the party - the activists and the bloggers, as well as the endorsement of the New York Times.
To show how little daylight there is between Mr Lieberman and Mr Bush, a group called the Connecticut Bloggers has put together a giant papier-mâché statue of Mr Bush giving Mr Lieberman a peck on the cheek, just after he had finished the state of the union address last year.
It is unsurprising that the party hierarchy has rallied to the beleaguered Mr Lieberman as so many Democrats voted to authorise Mr Bush to invade Iraq. But even those sympathetic to Mr Lieberman fault him for bending over backwards to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt - not unlike Tony Blair. Mr Lieberman is the Democratic party's supreme apologist for the Bush administration on a host of issues including the decision to wage war to the administration's decision to hold foreign citizens in prison without charge.
Such loyalty to Mr Bush contrasts sharply with Mr Lieberman's attitude towards Bill Clinton, a Democratic president, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Mr Lieberman famously was the first Democrat to publicly condemn Mr Clinton on the Senate floor "for having extramarital relations with an employee half his age . . . in the vicinity of the Oval Office. Such behaviour is not just inappropriate. It is immoral."