Reply #13: I'm not even a Democrat in name, not being American,

[Donald Ian Rankin]

So I look at the issue slightly differently - I don't feel any party loyalty whatsoever to any group; the two standards I'm judging by are

1) is this good for the cause of left-wing politics in America, irrespective of party.

2) is this acceptable behaviour for a politician - is it "playing fair"?

I think that Lieberman unquestionably did the wrong thing from point of view 1) by even standing against Lamont in the primary - Lamont is the more progressive of the two, although by less than most DUers appear to believe - but that he has done less wrong in that respect than any Republican.

I don't, however, think that he's done anything wrong from POV 2) - he's under no moral obligation of any kind not to run as an independent, given that the voters want him to.

However, given that Lieberman existed and was running, I think that Lamont also did the wrong thing from POV 1) by running against him - by doing so, he's made it likely that the Senator for Connecticut will be Lieberman(I) than Lieberman(D), which is bad. He *obviously* hasn't done anything wrong from POV 2).

I don't think either man has in any way "broken the rules of the game" or acted dishonourably.

I *do* think that those people who hold Democratic offices connected to campaigning in Connecticut but are supporting Lieberman have behaved badly from POV 2). I think that unless and until you split officially from a political party you have an obligation to toe its line to some extent. Lieberman has done so, and that's fine, but people who hold offices relevant to the Connecticut senate under Democratic auspices but are not endorsing the Democratic candidate are not fullfilling the trust the Democratic party placed in them when it selected them, which is wrong under POV 2).