More reaction from others:

Update: NYTimes:

Ned Lamont, who defeated the senator in the Democratic primary earlier this year, criticized Mr. Lieberman as a “career politician” who has no plan for withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

For the first time, the Republican nominee, a little-known lawyer named Alan Schlesinger, had a prominent pulpit to attack the frontrunner as well: he accused Mr. Lieberman of ignoring problems with the Social Security system and failing to work to keep the deficit in check....

“This is not a race about Republican or Democrat; it’s not a race about left and right,” Mr. Lamont said. “It’s a race about right and wrong. And I think right now we have a government in Washington, D.C., that is making a lot of bad decisions right now.”

Mr. Lieberman accused Mr. Lamont, in particular, of running a negative race. He challenged viewers at the outset of the debate to keep track of the number of times Mr. Lamont attacked him, saying the wealthy businessman from Greenwich would owe “free pizza and beer for everybody” if the number of attacks exceeded 10.

Firedoglake:

When Lieberman tried to nail down the critical senior vote by lying about the fact that he had supported social security privatization, Lamont set the record straight. All Joe could do was whine that Ned was being mean to him, and when he thought he was scoring a master stroke by keeping score of how many times his thin skin got bruised, the audience openly booed him.

Alan Schlessinger kicked Lieberman's ass for the GOP vote he so critically needs to win, and Lamont gave him no quarter on the Democratic side (and looked very senatorial in the process). While there are many good things to say about both Lamont and Schlessinger in the debate today, the loser was clearly — Joe Loserman.

TPMCafe Election Central:

Both Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont scored heavy blows in today's debate. Lamont persuasively invoked the same attack line Lieberman used 18 years ago against then-Senator Lowell Weicker — that the incumbent had served too long with too few results. A key Lamont goal was to broaden the case against Lieberman beyond Iraq, and he successfully did that today, saying Lieberman had failed Connecticut on various fronts.

Spazeboy, liveblogging:

Joe seems to think it’s fair to go after someone’s experience, when it’s cited as an asset…but it’s NOT OK to question Senator Lieberman’s experience. The difference being, of course, that Lieberman’s charge is questionable at best.

Kirby at CTBob, liveblogging Spazeboy a few hours ago (confused yet?):

Joe just came down the stairs with Spazeboy in hot pursuit. Let's hope Spaze nails him. We're doing our best here.

Having watched it on closed circuit here in the press room, I think Alan helped himself the most. He was a little over the top, but if you're a Republican, I think Alan gave you a lot to think about. He shot from the hip, and did a great job nailing Joe on his false Republican credentials. Ned didn't take any chances -- there was no need to. Ned is what he is -- an honest, ethical guy who wants to help make a difference in the world. He's not going to change that between now and November 7 or November 7, 2010.

And Joe is Joe. Had trouble dodging and weaving with Alan on his right and Joe on his left -- literally, on the stage. Initially, we thought he got the good seat being in the middle, but no -- he had no where to look or hide.

More reaction from me:

Think of the questions Joe didn't have to answer today. Not one question about Iraq, the same day the 3,000th coalition soldier was killed over there. Not one question about his commitment to caucus with the Democrats, one day after he was reported as saying he "hadn't thought enough" about whether a Democratic congress would be better for America. Not one question about accepting support from Mel Sembler, Bob J. Perry, Karl Rove, Tom Kuhn, or any of the countless other pro-Bush forces out there feverishly working to build the Lieberman party.

Seems like Joe should have to answer these questions. At some point.

In the meantime, "Schlesinger" has become the new buzz word in CT politics.