[theknife]

so why is a Connecticut Democratic primary in August so high on the White House radar screen? the White House is going well out of it's way to trash Lamont, with the VP even holding a highly unusual teleconference with reporters:

Mr. Cheney...suggested in his remarks Wednesday that the outcome of a Democratic primary in Connecticut could embolden “Al Qaeda types.”

from the begninning, Cheney and the rest of the GOP have sought to blur the war in Iraq with the war on terror - it obviously worries them that the voters are no longer buying this. Lieberman et al pounced on the news of the airline terror plot that was announced yesterday and attempted to tie it into his loss to Lamont on Tuesday.

Embarking on his re-election campaign as an Independent, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman says the terror plot involving U.S. and U.K. airliners is an example of how his Democratic opponent, Ned Lamont, is out of touch with the real war on terror.

this is patently silly - Connecticut voters knew on Tuesday that the iraq war has little connection to the war on terror, and a plot in London, hatched by Brits with Pakistani connections, announced on Wednesday, doesn't make one. but at this point, Lieberman is using the Karl Rove playbook and he's looks a little desperate. in fact, so does the White House - perhaps this Fox News poll is causing them some distress?

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Aug. 8-9, 2006. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Thinking ahead to this November's elections, if the congressional election were held today, would you vote for the Democratic candidate in your district or the Republican candidate in your district?" [7/11-7/12 results in parenthesis]

Democrat: 48 (42)
Republican: 30 (34)
Unsure: 22 (25)

an 18 point spread preferring the Dem candidate is pretty big - no doubt it will tighten considerably before November, but it still must causing the GOP some anxiety. the Lamont victory is being taken as a sign of general disgust with the incumbent by the voters, and the White House is forced to go back the only card they really have left to play - the terror card. they don't have a lot of choice here - if the Dems take back Congress, they're fucked and they know it.

edit: this is pretty crass, even by White House standards:

"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won't "look as appealing" under the circumstances.