MISTY WATERCOLOR MEMORIES

My feelings about the possible appointment of Caroline Kennedy to the Senate have grown a lot closer to Jane Hamsher's, and I appreciate the fact that she's pointing this out:

In her first move after announcing that she would like to be appointed to the New York Senate seat, Caroline Kennedy has hired "major Democratic fixer Josh Isay."

Isay did the honors for Joe Lieberman during his general election race against Ned Lamont, after Lieberman withdrew from the Democratic party and ran as a member of the "Connecticut for Lieberman" party.

Unfortunately, after that, Jane's memory becomes a bit fuzzy.

She posts one of Isay's ads for Lieberman -- in which Joe claims to want the troops to come home -- and says:

Of course, at the time Lieberman was getting hammered in the polls by Lamont, and needed to quickly change his rhetoric or risk a loss in Connecticut where the anti-war sentiment was strong.

Sorry, Jane, but no. Lieberman was never "hammered" by Lamont in general election polls in Connecticut -- his support among Republicans and independents was too strong. In the Quinnipiac polls conducted between the Democratic primary and the general election, Lieberman led Lamont by 12 points (August 17), 10 points (September 28), 17 points (October 20), and 12 points (November 1 and November 6). In each poll, Lieberman had at least 69% of the Republican vote (despite the presence of a Republican on the ballot) and a double-digit lead over Lamont among independents. Lieberman won by 10 points. The ad in Jane's post appeared on YouTube on October 21.

The netroots never came to terms with the fact that Lieberman was disturbingly popular in Connecticut going into that '06 race, despite the fact that antiwar sentiment was widespread. The voters weren't being logical, and that fact seemed to make a lot of lefty blogger brains short-circuit. But voters often aren't logical.