If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.

The pair spent the early part of a sweltering afternoon in Hartford's North End at the It's A Gee Thang Barber Salon at 2576 Main St., where owner Lebert Fitzgerald Lester II said "this community is wondering" about the wisdom of years of dependable support for Lieberman.

After that, in Bridgeport, Lamont shook scores of hands - including that of city Mayor John Fabrizi, who seconded Lieberman's nomination at the party's May convention - during the Father Panik Village residents' reunion at a park next to the site of the demolished housing project.

Today, with nine days left until his Aug. 8 primary with anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, Lieberman is scrambling to regain his footing among Democrats who repeatedly signaled their anger over the war - only to be ignored.

Public and private polling told Lieberman in January that Democrats were abandoning him over his efforts to prop up public support for an unpopular war that was paralyzing the Bush administration and jeopardizing the GOP's control of Congress.

But Lieberman persisted.

"I was worried about a repeat of Vietnam," he said Friday during an interview aboard his campaign bus. "Public opinion was moving away from supporting the war for reasons that were understandable, but not complete."

In acts that seemed infused with hubris and naivete, Lieberman decided he could single-handedly reverse public opinion, first with the op-ed article and then with a speech in which he seemed to warn against dissent, saying "that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

The strain shows. At campaign events, Lieberman at times appears subdued and weary. He projects little of the cheerful enthusiasm that marked his long-shot presidential bid two years ago. "It's difficult personally," Lieberman said last week of the defections by party veterans such as Stolberg. "I am competing in the most difficult part of the Connecticut electorate for me."

"I felt all along I would have a challenge," Lieberman quipped. "But I was hoping God would send me a poor one." The senator, however, has raised $7 .2 million for his campaign.