His unquestioning support of Bush administration policies on Iraq, even as American military casualties mounted and Iraq spiraled out of control toward civil war, was a failure of duty and he should be held accountable.

It took the Lamont challenge to get Lieberman back to Connecticut to explain some of the choices he has made in Washington....

The News-Times Editorial Board has twice endorsed Lieberman for election to the Senate, citing his experience, intelligence and hard work. The Editorial Board also endorsed Lieberman in the August primary. After he lost, the Editorial Board suggested he withdraw from the campaign.

In Tuesday's election, the Editorial Board endorses Ned Lamont.

From the start of his campaign, Lamont has been a confident candidate, sure of his message as an outsider, not intimidated by Lieberman's long experience in government.

Lieberman dismisses Lamont as someone who wouldn't be able to match his presence in the Senate. Lieberman summons the same attitude toward voters who disagree with him on the war.

The problem for Lieberman is that all of his experience, all of his knowledge, didn't help him recognize what the Bush war policies were doing and now American military personnel are in the middle of a civil war in Iraq.

If the most experienced members of Congress didn't exercise oversight responsibilities on Iraq, have they really earned re-election?

If elected, Lamont will have to learn the ways of Washington. But Washington would benefit from having new people who ask questions, who wonder why "business as usual" can't be challenged and changed....

In a year when the voters must impose change on Washington, Ned Lamont is the better choice.

The last thing one Connecticut woman expected while visiting Indiana in September was to find the politics of her home state dominating the conversation. But as she watched a soccer game one day, ordinary Midwesterners approached her to discuss Senator Joseph Lieberman’s chances of winning in the general election.

It was yet another illustration of a rare event: Connecticut’s capture of the political stage. Such moments do not come often for the third-smallest state in the union, especially one with a reputation for being averse to change....

This year, Connecticut has led the country in demanding change. Now it could make history. But that will not happen unless its citizens actually go to the polls on Nov. 7.

Whether among friends or not, Mr. Lieberman, with his avuncular, grandfatherly demeanor, usually seems right at home, happily chatting with children or their mothers. But he keeps the stops short — typical for a campaign in which his appearances are carefully orchestrated and tightly controlled. His aides routinely cut off questioning when they feel Mr. Lieberman has addressed an issue adequately, and the senator himself, a three-term incumbent, sometimes has the air of a candidate who did not quite expect to be defending his seat again.

Mr. Lamont, by contrast, seems to possess almost limitless energy. He lingers at events, shaking hands until his driver begins tapping him impatiently on the arm, always seeming to enjoy himself.

One woman insisted that he was not conservative enough for her, chiding him over his views on abortion. She pleaded with Mr. Lieberman about why he did not support a ban on so-called “partial-birth abortion,” which she called a “disgrace.”

“Come on, how can a man like you agree with that,” she asked, sitting in the waiting area of a hair salon. “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to write in my husband. I don’t like any of them. Ned Lamont is the biggest jerk in the world.”

Mr. Lieberman responded with a chuckle. “Well we agree on that,” he said. “So if you’ve got a choice between a jerk ...” He trailed off, not quite finishing his sentence.

Veteran GOP consultant Dave Carney said he expects Republicans to make a push for Lieberman to switch ranks, but he predicted the senator will stay put. That way, said Carney, he could wield more power as a centrist.

''If he stays where he is, he could be the undisputed 800-pound gorilla in the Senate,'' Carney said. ''He will end up as the powerbroker, the go-to guy. Both sides will need him as a bridge. To get anything done, you would need his seal of approval.''

Ron Napoli, a Waterbury, Conn.-Democrat who volunteered on Lieberman's first state Senate race more than three decades ago but is backing Lamont, said the GOP courtship of Lieberman is already in full bloom.

''And he's responded,'' said Napoli, who added that he would not be surprised if Lieberman breaks party ranks to join the GOP.

Knowing that Lieberman prefers to discuss issues other than Iraq, Lamont's advisers welcomed Lieberman's remarks Friday as evidence that their ad is scoring, tightening a race that Lieberman has led in every poll since losing the primary.

Gerstein said the press conference was following the game plan of quickly and aggressively responding to anything the Lieberman campaign saw as a distortion of his record.

"They can conjecture all they want and spin all they want," Gerstein said. "There was nothing different."

On Friday, Lieberman insisted the race was far broader than the war, though he portrayed the conflict as never far from his thoughts.

"It's about which of us can do a better job for the people of Connecticut," Lieberman said. "People are worried about Iraq. So am I. I worry about it, think about it, pray about it every day, try to get it to work better every day."

At a campaign stop in Waterbury on Saturday, Lamont said Lieberman's position on the war in recent weeks was "a muddle."

"I don't know where he's going to be the day after the election. You know where I'm going to be," he said. "We're going to be down there, holding the president's feet to the fire, saying now is the time to change course."

Lamont said he was not reassured by Lieberman's insistence that he would remain a Democrat if re-elected.

"When he's getting so much of his support from the Republicans, when the Bush-Cheney [administration] is out there campaigning for him, when all of his money is coming from Republicans and Republican-linked lobbyists, there is going to be an awful lot of pressure on him," Lamont said.