sisyphusshrugged | "My loyalty is to the public interest"

This, from the Times, about the effect of the Lieberman independent candidacy on CT House races

“Explain to me how two Democrats running is bad,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. “Would I prefer it be simpler? Yeah. But everybody is hyperventilating, and my own view is that we have an energized base.” Mr. Emanuel, who is a congressman from Illinois, campaigned and raised money for Ms. Farrell in recent days.

But other top Democrats, including Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, have called on Mr. Lieberman to drop out and say he is hurting both the state and national parties.

The Connecticut races are considered very important to the Democrats’ ambitions for the midterm elections.

By almost any calculation, the Democrats, who hold the state’s other two House seats, will have to capture at least one of the three Republican-held seats to retake control of the House, political analysts say.

The three House races offer many parallels to the Senate contest. Like Mr. Lieberman, the Republican incumbents are all centrists who support the war in Iraq.

...

The similarities in the races are not lost on the Republicans, who have all tried to align themselves with Mr. Lieberman, standing next to him at events, invoking his calls for bipartisanship and using the same language as he uses in talking about Iraq.

While the Republicans cozy up to Mr. Lieberman, Democrats are in a careful dance with Mr. Lamont, a political newcomer who is still untested among a large swath of general-election voters.

Mr. Lieberman, who during three six-year terms became a Democratic stalwart in Connecticut, acknowledges that his independent campaign has placed him and his former Democratic allies in a predicament.

Indeed, all three of the Democratic Congressional candidates supported him in the primary but have now endorsed Mr. Lamont.

“It’s a little awkward for me now,” Mr. Lieberman said on Friday, speaking to reporters in New Haven. “I’m a noncombatant — I am not going to be involved in other campaigns. I think it’s better if I just focus on my own race.”

[On Saturday, a Lieberman campaign aide called to offer a clarification for this article. The aide, Dan Gerstein, said that the senator had endorsed all the Democratic candidates for the House and still hoped they would win...]

Only it doesn't seem as if it's that awkward for him after all. This, from a Fox interview with "devoted Democrat" Senator Lieberman on the damage his race is going to do to the CT Democratic candidates that he still hopes will win

Well, I guess I could say they should have thought of that during the primary

A few weeks ago, the Democratic challengers were, in the opinion of Senator Lieberman, the best choice to represent the interests of Connecticut.

Now it's OK if they lose, even if it means that Connecticut doesn't get the representation it deserves, because they endorsed the winner of the Democratic primary.

I can see why he had to reach across the aisle to be true to those principles.