In a characteristically counterintuitive piece for TNR.com, Ryan Lizza argues that the “second half” of Lamont/Lieberman will fade as a national issue because, as an unnamed DSCC insider tells him, the national party isn’t going to busy itself much with Connecticut this fall:
Why would we spend money defending a seat that will be blue either way?
Later, a different (I think) Senate aide tells him the primary won’t induce Democrats to campaign on immediate withdrawal from Iraq, either:
Our Iraq policy has been driven by [Harry] Reid and [Carl] Levin. To be honest, they could give a rat’s ass about the blogs. In other words, these are policy-based decisions, and aren’t driven by the politics of Connecticut or anywhere else.
Not even a rat’s ass? Really? That might come as a surprise to the readers and commenters at Reid’s Give Em Hell, Harry blog, among the most popular blogs written by an elected Democratic official — almost up there with Conyers Blog, written (or “written”) by a more traditional netroots ally.
It also calls to mind Lamont’s absurd defenestration of Jane Hamsher late last week, for which he apparently paid no price in terms of blogger support (even from Hamsher). And let’s not forget Dem consultant Steve Elmendorf, who paid the ultimate price — excommunication from the left by Markos Moulitsas — for daring to admit:
The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections. The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left.
And what happens if Lizza is right, the Democrats give nothing more than lip service to Lamont, and the Conn. Senate race fades from the national scene? How vocal will the netroots be about their dissatisfaction? How damaging would that be to blogger-politician relations? Might Chuck Schumer, chairman of the DSCC, be the next pariah Democrat — or at least the next Rahm Emanuel?
Could it be that what seemed less than 100 hours ago like the first major gate-crashing will actually end up building more barriers between Beltway Democrats and the party’s online activists?
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