Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, riding strong antiwar sentiment, has surged to a significant lead over embattled Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) heading into Tuesday’s Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released here Thursday.

The poll showed Lamont ahead of Lieberman by 54 percent to 41 percent, underscoring the challenger’s clear advantage.

Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive and costly get-out-the-vote operation on primary day, according to several Democratic sources. Instead, he will shift some of his resources into more television commercials designed to highlight his accomplishments for the state, in hopes of boosting his battered image. ~The Washington Post

There is arguably nothing very interesting about this, since this outcome was not really unexpected and one more antiwar senator (assuming Lamont can actually win the general) won’t make a bit of difference as long as the GOP remains in the majority and/or the foreign policy establishment remains absurdly committed to persisting in the dead-end course that is the Iraq war.  However, it will wipe the smile off the face of the arrogant editors of The New Republic and point towards the possibility that a party’s constituents can actually tell the party what to do every once in a while, so there are a few small reasons to take satisfaction in Lieberman’s impending defeat.  Above all, the man deserves to be defeated for lending the credibility and respectability to the Iraq war that “bipartisan support” brings to any enterprise in the eyes of the political class; he has been one of the more obnoxious supporters of this war, and he has been all the more obnoxious because he actually seems to think it is the right course of action (bootlicking Republicans can plead cowardice, conformity and corruption).  The “netroots” are on the verge of uprooting one of the largest trees in the War Party’s forest, so give the Kossacks and their allies credit for that.  Whether Kossack-induced fratricide among Democrats will actually force that party to become a remotely coherent opposition is unknown (it is not very likely), but the rest of us can sit back and enjoy the sight of the wolves tearing each other to pieces.