Lieberman may emerge from this thing as the Connecticut champ, and I admit I am impressed by his ability to fight, which he certainly never displayed on behalf of Al Gore, but he will be one of those champs with sore ribs, a detached retina in one eye and a permanent look of fear in the other.

Nixon was never the same either. We landed long-lasting body blows. Far from being the loser he is now portrayed as, war hero George McGovern changed the landscape of America, first with the 1974 congressional landslide, next with the incredible near-miss by McGovern national campaign manager Gary Hart, a 1000-1 grassroots challenger if there ever was one (Mondale the establishment "winner," by the way, lost worse than McGovern and left no legacy unless you count Joe Trippi), and finally the two-term presidency of McGovern's Texas coordinator, Bill Clinton. Many other McGovern greybeards are still active--Bill Lockyer, cruising to victory as California's state treasurer although he ought instead to be our nominee for governor, is only one. Decades later, the aging Dean and Lamont people (please remember, when you hear me ramble on like this about the old days, that none of us is getting younger) will still likewise be making waves, but from the inside, not the outside of those famous gates.

I hope, still, that the other senators will see Ned Lamont strolling around the floor as a living reminder of the power of the liberals) but the next best thing will be Joe Lieberman as walking wounded, a survivor, yes, but such as survivor who survives by low methods, such as ratting out his friends. I say the power of the liberal, not the power of the netroots because the Republicans have their own AJAX programmers and grass-roots loyalists who will soon out-Daily-Kos us with their superior financial resources.

As a local McGovern manager, I refused to admit in my heart any possibility of defeat lest it in show in my face. At the final moment, which came early, California was drowned in the East Coast election results while our GOTV was still in progress and precinct workers streamed back into the headquarters with accusing eyes for telling them that we still had a chance.

This was so unimaginably bitter that I feel its sharpness even now, 17 elections later. Still, if we had won, we would have won only because thousands like me, from top to bottom, refused to admit even the possibility of defeat. And that is why I say the price of victory is tears.

It was years later, you know, that I realized I had done my part, that my territory, the city of San Jose, went for McGovern.

So now I tell the Lamont volunteers, if they need to be told, that defeat, bitter defeat, may possibly be around the corner because sometimes the voters don't listen to reason, don't listen to morality, don't even seem to listen to the voice of their own best interests.

But victory may be waiting there too. Nobody knows. This election is surely closer than McGovern v.  Nixon was by the final weekend when Vegas was offering 1000-1 (a wino across the street told me, "I'd take them odds even the election was over. Maybe they makes a mistake"). And the outcome of your race, even in the event of a loss, far less catastrophic. I believe if Lieberman returns that he will caucus with the Dems, Rove's blandishments notwithstanding. Yes, under those circumstances, he would be a committee chairman, if his vote gives us a majority, but so then would Democrats from sea to shining sea, Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer among them.

For weeks now, I have been stressing the godawful consequences of a Lamont loss, but I think I have perhaps been living in the past, reliving Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and that other war, the one that nearly killed John Kerry and exposed him and his band of brothers not to lifelong glory but to livelong scorn and ridicule.

But history is on his side. His decorations and Navy Department citations are a matter of record. History is on our side. I have told you of George McGovern's continuing contribution to it. History is on your side. This is a battle, not a war, and neither victory nor defeat will be conclusive. All of us, even the old men and women who have anything left in them, will fight on. You too will fight on, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Beat Holy Joe
Beat him bad