With Laura Bush in town to raise $300,000 for Chris Shays' campaign, Shays couldn't resist once again using Joe Lieberman to try to inoculate himself on Iraq:

"And if I toe the line on the war in Iraq, I guess [Farrell] thinks the same thing about Joe Lieberman," he said of the Democratic U.S. senator. "His position and mine are basically identical."

Remember, it was Shays who two months ago said he would endorse Joe, and had been encouraging the state GOP to cross-endorse him.

This is a perfect example of how Lieberman hurts downticket candidates and the party in general. When the party can't speak with anything approaching a single voice on issues of this magnitude, otherwise sputtering campaigns like Shays' will try to take advantage. Farrell should be able to hit Shays over the head on Iraq clearly and incessantly, but since she (like every other CT candidate) feels obliged to support an 18-year incumbent senator who agrees with her opponent, the waters get muddied.

If Joe cuts and runs from the party before August, he will tear apart the party even more. But for Joe, it has never been about the party, or his constituents. It has always been about himself, his career, and his personal success.