Today is the beginning of the end of Joe Lieberman's career in the United States Senate.

Ned Lamont will make his candidacy official at 4pm ET at the Old State House in Hartford, CT.

The Hartford Courant has a great article this morning detailing Ned's recent appearance at the DFA meetup in Torrington. (I know ctblogger has the full video of this appearance, and will hopefully host it soon). Over an hour at a bar at a Mexican restaurant, Ned was able to convince some very skeptical activists of both his sincerity on the issues and viability as a candidate:

His would-be audience was unimpressed. Lamont got hard looks from one of the first to arrive: John L. Miller, 75, who made the winding, 30-minute drive from Cornwall with Paul H. Baren, 81, and Stephen H. Senzer, 76, to see if he is worth their time.

"We're not about to throw in with someone that has no chance," said Miller, who intensely dislikes Lieberman. "I was hoping to be more impressed with the planning."

Lamont implored them to stay.

And an hour later, after a free-wheeling discussion that quickly moved beyond the war in Iraq to the Patriot Act, universal health care, the environment and the economy, Lamont would have some recruits for a campaign that officially opens today.

The more people see of Ned Lamont, the more they are convinced he is exactly the person Connecticut needs in the Senate. With only 6% name recognition among Democrats, he is already at 13% in the polls.

The converse is true of Joe Lieberman: the more people see of him, the less they like him. They are reminded of his poor campaign for Vice President and his even less successful run in the 2004 primaries, where he scored a mere 5% of the vote and won zero Connecticut delegates to send to Boston. Perhaps that's why his campaign sounds so disjointed and desperate, even at this early stage:

"We're going to run a campaign. We're going to have him here and be doing this the old-fashioned way: He's going to be asking people for their vote," said Sean Smith, recently hired to run the Lieberman campaign. "He ran for vice president. He ran for president. He hasn't really had a dialogue with Connecticut voters about Connecticut issues in a while. He is looking forward to it."

He "hasn't really had a dialogue with Connecticut voters about Connecticut issues in a while"? What was stopping him? Isn't that precisely the job description of an elected representative?

The fact remains that Joe Lieberman has not had to ask Connecticut Democrats for their vote in 36 years. He is going to be doing so very reluctantly, and without foreswearing the option of bolting the party and caucusing with the Senate GOP if he loses the primary.

The Nedmentum starts today.