Get Over Joe

So Ned Lamont won the Connecticut Democratic senate primary, Joe Lieberman is running as an independent, and the Republicans are rallying to Lieberman and dissing their own nominee, Alan Schlesinger. (That last move is not altogether surprising; even the GOP knows that running a winger in Connecticut is suicidal, and they have no scruples when it comes to winning and losing.)

But, as TPM Reader DK points out, there are a lot of other Senate races out there that deserve attention, especially the races where the Democrats have a chance of beating a Republican and getting close to winning the majority in the Senate. The race in Virgina, thanks to Sen. Allen showing his true nature last week, caught the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. If Jim Webb is to win in Virginia, he has to show that he is more than just the candidate who knows how to watch what he says on the stump.

And more importantly, there are some competitive races out there where the Democratic incumbent is the one in trouble. Maria Cantwell in Washington is in a close race, as is Debbie Stabenow in Michigan. In other races where the Democrats have been seen as within striking distance -- Tennessee and Missouri, for example -- the GOP is mounting their standard scorched-earth campaign, calling out their orc-like minions of wingnuts for voter registration drives at churches and publishing "non-partisan" voter guides; "non-partisan" to the degree where they say "Candidate X is pro-life; Candidate Y eats stem cells on a soda cracker."

The races that aren't getting the media frenzy matter are just as important, if not more so, than the Senate race in Connecticut. If Lamont wins -- and that isn't a sure thing -- it will not change the number of Democrats in the minority, and if Lieberman wins, the Lamont campaign will take on all the quixotic pallor of the Howard Dean candidacy after Iowa and provide the punditocracy with talking points to beat up on the idea of "netroots." Meanwhile the races that could change the face of the Senate and give the Democrats a majority are gasping for air.

I know it's a lot to ask, but if progressives hope to make the most of the country's disaffection with Bush and the GOP, they'll have to move beyond the flash and bang of the Connecticut race and look to the ones where plain old shoeleather campaigning and retail politicking will make the difference.