81% of Democrats now disapprove of Lieberman's job performance with only 14% approving, and he's not real popular with Republicans who disapprove of him by a 48/39 margin or with independents who do so by a 61/32 spread either. It all adds up to a 25% approval rating with 67% of his constituents giving him bad marks.Conventional wisdom amongst mainstream pundits as well as many Sensible Liberal outlets is that "Blue Dog" Democrats in conservative states and districts must make a show of holding up Democratic legislation in order to electorally survive or be seen as complicit to the radical Marxi-liberal agenda of whatever corporate Democrat is in the White House. In practice, however, your hypothetical Blue Dog succeeds only in alienating everyone. Republicans will hate him or her merely for having the temerity to associate with the Global Communist Conspiracy, and progressives will be uninspired by one capitulation after another. Granted our congresscritter is in a nearly-impossible situation; she isn't likely to survive the right-wing backlash of a first-term midterm election anyway. So why take the one approach that's guaranteed not to work? Alan Grayson may lose, but he isn't going to go meekly.
Lieberman is a special case, of course, as he comes from a very liberal state and was already, for all intents and purposes, elected as a Republican in 2006. Nonetheless, it's gratifying to know that the media-darling Broderist ubermenschen act has put his approval numbers into Dick Cheney territory.
