On the one hand, Sen. Lieberman wants to continue to attack Ned Lamont as being an Al-Qaeda appeaser, in the recent rhetorical tradition of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. On the other hand, he's now trying to paint himself as - somehow - a harsh critic of the Iraq war. Lieberman spokesperson Tammy Sun tells the New Haven Register:

"Joe Lieberman has nothing but the utmost respect for the men and women of our armed forces, especially those who served in Iraq, which is why he has repeatedly and harshly criticized the Bush administration for not having a plan to win the peace, not putting enough troops on the ground, or including enough allies," she said.

In March 2005, these were Sen. Lieberman's words, in a now-famous New Yorker piece:

Lieberman is a study in the dangers of steroidal muscularity, becoming an outlier in his own party. (He has edged to the right as his running mate in the 2000 election, Al Gore, has moved leftward.) His fate was sealed with a kiss, planted on his cheek by Bush, just after the President delivered his State of the Union address. “That may have been the last straw for some of the people in Connecticut, the blogger types,” Lieberman told me. But he is unapologetic about his defense of Bush’s Iraq policy, saying, “Bottom line, I think Bush has it right.” When I asked if he was becoming a neoconservative, Lieberman smiled and said, “No, but some of my best friends are neocons.”

Even Lieberman's supporters must find this laughable. Many of them support him because he supports Bush. But like Republicans around the country, even Lieberman is now trying to run away from Bush.

Bottom line, it won't work.