Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny has a great roundup of progressive challengers running against other Lieberman-esque out-of-touch incumbents, including Jerry McNerney, who is running for the nomination to take on Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) in November, and Donna Edwards, who is taking on Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD) for, among other things, his pro-Bush votes on the bankruptcy bill, the energy bill, and Iraq (sound familiar?)

He quotes a bit from Sirota's book about Lieberman's duplicity on the bankruptcy bill (voting for cloture, then against the bill), and ends with this challenge/contest to Lamont supporters:

OK-- that made me think of a contest. Lieberman has liked this tactic of deception-- making sure to support his Republican allies where it really counts and then claiming to vote with Democrats when it doesn't. The 10 best essays or paragraphs with examples of Lieberman's duplicity along these lines will get a rare and valuable CD that can't be purchased in any stores and has music on it by a variety of ultra cool artists like The Ramones, Green Day, Body Count, Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths, Enya, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Depeche Mode, Wilco, Neil Young, Lou Reed and John Cale, Talking Heads, Armageddon Dildos and more (including some songs that are otherwise unavailable). Send your answers to downwithtyranny@aol.com

I've got one for Howie, and it's old-school and kind of backwards from the way Joe usually works these things: his 1991 vote against Clarence Thomas' confirmation.

On October 4th, 1991, Lieberman spoke on the floor of the senate in glowing praise of the future Associate Justice. He had met with Thomas privately and was convinced of his qualifications for the position. Even after the Anita Hill accusations came out, Lieberman stood by his statement of support. But he was feeling the pressure back home, both within his family and among his constituents in Connecticut. On the day of the confirmation vote, he admitted himself to the New York Times that he didn't decide how he was going to vote until 15 minutes before the roll call. He changed his mind and voted "no" after it was clear Thomas had the votes anyway (11 other Democrats would vote in favor).

He claimed to have just had a last-minute change of heart based on Hill's accusations. But other sources remember it differently:

"My recollection on the day of the vote is that Lieberman told us that his daughter and wife were very upset that he was going to vote to confirm then Judge Thomas," says a former Bush administration official who was involved in the confirmation process.

"As a result," the former official says, "he said he was going to vote against Thomas unless his vote was needed to confirm Thomas. As reflected in the roll-call vote, Lieberman waited until after we had 50 votes to vote 'no.'"...

So Lieberman supposedly said he would have been there for Bush Sr. if he had needed him on Thomas. I wonder if that's why Hannity thought Joe would have been there for Bush Jr. if he had really needed him on Alito 15 years later.