US: The American anti-war left claimed a major victory yesterday when Joe Lieberman, a prominent Democratic senator and former vice-presidential candidate, lost a crucial vote in his run for re-election in his home state of Connecticut.
Mr Lieberman, a senator for 17 years and Al Gore's running mate in 2000, narrowly lost the Connecticut Democratic primary election to Ned Lamont, a millionaire political near-novice who ran on a platform of opposition to the war in Iraq. The turnout of Connecticut Democrats was 50 per cent, double the normal showing.
The result means that Mr Lamont, who won 52 per cent of the vote, will be the party's official candidate in November's midterm elections, when Democrats hope to win back control of Congress.
Mr Lieberman immediately announced his intention to run as an independent, setting him on a collision course with senior members of his party.
The often fractious Connecticut campaign had attracted national attention as a bellwether for the split between Democrats who argue that the party needs to move to the centre to win wavering voters and those who believe that only a clearly defined left-wing alternative to George Bush stands any long-term chance of electoral success.
Mr Lieberman has supported not just the decision to invade Iraq, a position originally shared by many in his party, but also Mr Bush's subsequent approach to the conflict, a stance now rejected by most Democrats. Lamont campaign ads made great play of a video clip showing the president kissing Mr Lieberman on the cheek after the 2005 State of the Union address.
Opponents of the Lamont campaign - centrist Democrats and conservatives - said his victory would show that the party was controlled by its radical fringe. But opposition to the Iraq war is the mainstream US stance.
According to a CNN poll released yesterday, 60 per cent of Americans object to the war, and only 36 per cent support it. A majority wants to see at least a partial withdrawal of troops by the end of the year.
"They call Connecticut the land of steady habits," Mr Lamont told jubilant supporters at a hotel in the town of Meriden. "Tonight we voted for a big change . . . We have 132,000 of our bravest troops stuck in the middle of a bloody civil war in Iraq. And I say it's high time we bring them home to the hero's welcome."
The Lamont victory also demonstrated the growing strength of the "netroots" - bloggers and other internet-based campaigners who helped transform their candidate from an unlikely outsider to the victor within a few months.
Mr Lamont, a millionaire cable-television entrepreneur, used plenty of his own money to finance the campaign, but bloggers funnelled additional donations to him and gave the race a national profile.
The defeated senator, meanwhile, was looking increasingly isolated yesterday as he insisted on launching a campaign to run as an independent.
Despite a hawkish position on national security far removed from Mr Lamont's, New York senator Hillary Clinton swiftly declared her backing for the result. "I understand [ Mr Lieberman's] feeling, it's a difficult time for him and his family, but I said more than a month ago that I would support the winner of the Democratic primary, and that's what I intend to do," Ms Clinton said. "I'll be sending a contribution to Mr Lamont today and I've called to offer my support."
The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, backed Ms Clinton's position.
Mr Lieberman acknowledged that an independent candidacy might split Democrats, but said he would not listen to calls from his party to abandon the plan out of loyalty.