As noted by Tom Bevan over at Real Clear Politics:

In the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Jonathan Chait, senior editor for the center-left intellectual magazine The New Republic, took left-wing Internet activists to task for mounting a primary challenge to Senator Joe Lieberman. Chait characterized the group as "a pack of crazed, ignorant ideological cannibals" and then said the following about the move to drive Lieberman out of the party:

"the anti-Lieberman campaign has come to stand for much more than Lieberman's sins. It's a test of strength for the new breed of left-wing activists who are flexing their muscles within the party. These are exactly the sorts of fanatics who tore the party apart in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They think in simple slogans and refuse to tolerate any ideological dissent. Moreover, since their anti-Lieberman jihad is seen as stemming from his pro-war stance, the practical effect of toppling Lieberman would be to intimidate other hawkish Democrats and encourage more primary challengers against them."

Coincidentally, on the same day Chait's article appeared, the Washington Post published an op-ed by one of the leaders of the "new breed of left-wing activists who are flexing their muscles within the party," Markos Moulitsas, who blasted Hillary (and Bill, and the DLC centrist philosophy in general) for lacking leadership and being part of the Washington "establishment."

It is a small hope because the left - as typified by Daily Kos/Democratic Underground - has gained a very strong position within the Democratic Party. This left tried to foist the absurd Howard Dean on the Party in 2004 and when that failed, at least ensured that whomever emerged as the Democratic nominee would have had to take positions almost guaranteed to ensure a Democratic loss that year. And this left is still at it.

As Bevan goes on to note, it is far too early to tell how this will play out in the 2008 elections - but I will make my early prediction. I think that the left - especially after it loses this November - will simply become more and more extreme; by 2008, they will only accept the most overtly leftwing person as their candidate, and if they don't get him, they'll bolt the Democratic Party. On the other hand, if the Democrats are forced to pick an avowedly leftwing nominee, the center/left Democrats will bolt the Party.

There is still ever so slight a chance that teh center/left will prevail - that they will be able to force the Democratic Party to turn a bit right without alienating too much of the Democratic base...but the prime stumbling block is that last point...some of the Democratic base must be alienated in order for the Democrats to have a chance not at winning in 2008 (a near impossibiliy), but at surviving as a Party which can rebuild and try again in 2012 and 2016.

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