EU-Digest: Connecticut election results indicate Iraq will be fundamental divide in US elections as voters oust pro-Bush Iraq supporter Joe Lieberman

EU-Digest

Election results in Connecticut (USA) indicate Iraq will be a fundamental divide in upcoming US elections as voters oust pro-Bush Iraq policy supporter Joe Lieberman

Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democrats' most senior and outspoken supporter of President George Bush's Iraq policy lost against the Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, a cable television entrepreneur and political newcomer. Lamont, making his first run for statewide office, made Lieberman's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq the cornerstone of his campaign. While 29 Democratic senators voted in 2002 to give Bush the authority to go to war, none has been more vocal than Lieberman in continuing to back the U.S. military presence there.

The result of this election may have far reaching consequences for politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties, who support, what most people see as a disastrous US Iraq policy.

Even Senator Hillary Clinton, who is considered to be a front-runner for the Democrats in the Presidential race, last week called for the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to resign - a move seemingly at odds with the hawkish comments she has been making about Iraq over the past 18 months.

Voters in the Connecticut election gave the clearest of messages to political candidates all over America that the majority of the population is now opposed to the Iraq war or to offering support for Mr. Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Connecticut race attracted national attention for its emphasis on the war and Democratic anger at Bush, with Lamont casting the race as a referendum on the war and calling Lieberman an enabler of Bush and a Bush "lapdog."