The Unmaking of a Senator: How Bloggers Pulled It Off

[proud2BlibKansan]

With Lieberman's primary loss, the netroots movement has established itself as a power center among Democrats. But will its influence haunt the party in November?
By PERRY BACON, JR/WASHINGTON

Analysis: Why the GOP May Not Gain from Lieberman's Loss
Joe Klein: Lieberman's Last Stand

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 09, 2006
Now that it has played a major role in helping to defeat Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Senate primary Tuesday, the Netroots' moment has finally arrived.

The much-hyped Internet activists of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, liberal blogs like Daily Kos and activist groups like MoveOn.org had generated lots of buzz, but few results at the ballot box until now. But in Tuesday's Democratic primary, the bloggers didn’t just get a win, but a victory no one could have expected even four months ago. Joe Lieberman wasn't just a three-term Connecticut Senator, he was only a few thousand votes from being the vice-president in a Democratic administration six years ago. And despite almost the entire Democratic establishment supporting his run against a virtually unknown businessman named Ned Lamont, including former President Clinton campaigning for him in Connecticut, the bloggers and Connecticut voters have essentially kicked Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Party.

Even Lamont admitted that while he decided to enter the race himself, the blogs had long been hoping someone in Connecticut would take on Lieberman, and their support was crucial early in getting the word of his candidacy out. Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos appeared in one of his early ads, former blogger and Internet organizer Tim Tagaris left his job at the Democratic National Committee to work on Lamont’s campaign, and bloggers from the site mydd.com headed up to Connecticut over the last several days to call voters and encourage them to support Lamont. And MoveOn.org strongly supported Lamont despite pleas from Democratic leaders not to.

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But for now, this race sends one clear overriding message: in a liberal state like Connecticut, Democratic candidates defy the Netroots, who are here to stay, at their own peril.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1224538,00.html

[sendero]

1. Welcome to the new grass roots organizing tool..

... the internet. Read it and weep, corporatists.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Ain't it sweet?

[flobee1]

5. It just amazes me

that shady politicians are absolutely terrified at the thought of large groups of people sharing informaiton. You can always tell the ones that have something to hide. They first try to shift the blame to the people that suddenly caught onto their tricks, then they try to restrict and ban stuff that relates to the way the people communicate. Then they have no option left but to smear and discredit the information sharers



The Blogosphere is not some monster that you would see in a horror movie-
Blogs and message boards are nothing but people talking.


Keep talking folks!
The corrupt ones are getting scared
but the honest ones are on our side!

[tanyev]

2. Kudos to the bloggers, but Joe did a lot of it himself.

[Warpy]

3. Although I'd dearly love to take partial credit

since I've been outing his voting record for years, both good and bad, I have to think that Dean's grassroots organizing, the 50 State Initiative, has taken hold.

20% of the voters in this primary said they'd never voted before.

To me, that's far more than a bunch of keyboard pounders on the web can possibly accomplish.

I think the grass roots are growing. All they needed was a DEMOCRAT to vote for.