Nedrenaline: The long comedown

by David Weigel

Two polls showing the unbearable Joe Lieberman handily winning re-election as an independent have forced liberal bloggers into a pow-wow on their favorite subject: Liberal bloggers. Josh Marshall mulls:

Should progressives shift their money and attention from the Connecticut Senate race to more important contests?  Absolutely.
...
I am all for multi-tasking: pay passing attention to the Connecticut race, while focusing with laser intensity on the races that will actually determine control of the Senate.... Rove may be goading Democrats into fighting like hell amongst themselves in Connecticut, but that doesn't mean we have to take the bait.

No self-respecting liberal wants to think he's abetting Karl Rove, but Atrios - who almost single-handedly created Lamont's buzz among liberal blogs outside the Nutmeg State - completely disagrees: "I'd like more of that advice going to, say, the people who gave money so that Hillary Clinton could have $22 million cash-on-hand."

It's tough to say goodbye; it'll be tough for bloggers to stop shovelling bucks at the first candidate they actually sorta-elected. But how much support does Lamont really need? The man is worth at least $100 million. Now that he's built his political cred and a successful campaign team, he's probably gotten all the blog help he needs.

And is a donation to Hillary Clinton's slam-dunk Senate campaign really counterproductive? I'm sure every donor thinks he's filling out Line 1 of the 2009 White House staff application.