MORE LIEBERMAN BLOGGING!….Jon Chait dives into the Lieberman/Lamont scrum again and accuses Lamont’s supporters of ? what? An ideological litmus test?
[Markos] Moulitsas and many of his allies insist that they just want Democrats to win. But in fact, they believe that any deviation from the party line ? except for a few circumscribed instances, such as Democrats running for office in red states ? is an unforgivable crime. They have consigned large chunks of the center-left to enemy status. It is an odd way to go about building a majority.
This strikes me as unsupportable on two counts. First, what exactly is the “party line” that the Kossacks are trying to enforce? I’ve never been able to discern one, and the fact that (a) Chait doesn’t explain what he’s talking about and (b) uses a deliberately vague phrase like “party line” makes me suspect he can’t really back this up.
Second, why exactly would this be odd in any case? Last I heard, Grover Norquist had built an entire career on insisting that every last Republican politician kiss his pinkie ring and pledge never to vote for a tax increase. And the Republican Party seems to have done pretty well as a result. Having an activist base challenge incumbents viewed as too moderate is hardly unheard of in American politics, is it?
