This is huge.

I just walk in from the airport, turn on the television, and what do I see before me but Ned Lamont giving his victory speech. He's come from nowhere and defeated a once popular senator for his party's (former party's, I should say) nomination. The fight between Lieberman and Lamont isn't over, though - Lieberman has announced that he has absolutely no intention of bowing to the will of the voters, and will file petitions tomorrow to run in the general election as an independent. (That self-serving announcement came during his "concession" speech.)

Lieberman may well manage to retain his seat as an independent, but whether or not he returns to congress in the fall, an important message has just been sent. It's been sent to the Democratic "Leadership," so there's a good chance that it will fall on deaf ears, of course, but if it gets repeated a few more times it might just sink in.

The message is not, as the media seem to believe, that supporting the war in Iraq is bad for your political career. It's a bit more subtle than that. The real message here is that the Democratic voters in this country are looking for leadership from their putative leaders, and are more than willing to toss out politicians that don't deliver. From where I'm sitting, that's clear.

It's also clear, at least to me, as to how the Democratic leadership should respond to Lieberman's decision to run as an independent. What their actual response will be is much less clear.

Let's start with the obvious. The national leadership needs to make it clear that Lieberman is no longer a Democrat, effective as of the minute that he submits his application to run as an independent. They need to make sure that he gets no support from anyone of note in the party. They also need to throw the entire weight of the party behind Lamont. They need to put high profile Democrats out there, including some of the ones that were campaigning for Lieberman over the last few weeks, they need to point at Lamont, and they need to say, "he's our guy."

Anything less, and we can kiss the party goodbye.