Today, Ned Lamont showed what kind of senator he would be by supporting the Levin-Reed amendment on Iraq, saying that "it represents the minimum needed, but will build a Democratic coalition to establish and stick to a plan to end the war." He supported this less substantial amendment - as did Sen. Clinton, Sen. Feinstein, and others who can hardly be called critics on Iraq - in the hopes that it would build consensus and have the effect of making actual progress on Iraq policy.

Today, Joe Lieberman showed what kind of senator he is by actively leading the Republican charge against the Levin-Reed amendment. Sen. Warner (R-VA) fought to take speaking time away from Kerry and Feingold, and immediately passed it on to Lieberman to lead the charge to kill this call for greater accountability. Afterwards, Lieberman was praised effusively by both Warner and Sen. Santorum for his absolute lockstep agreement with the Administration on Iraq.

It is clear now that, for all the differences of opinion within the party on how exactly to proceed, there is a unified Democratic position on Iraq. And that position is that we need to change course and start planning for an end to our military presence there. Sen. Lieberman not only disagrees with this position, but is actively working against these goals to the point where he would steal time away from his colleagues to lead the Republican fight to kill their amendments.

The words "Senator Lamont" have never sounded better.

(Spazeboy has more, including .wmv video of Lieberman's speech today hosted by Without A Purpose.)