Remember Howard Dean's stump speeches, when he referred to "The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party"? Joe Lieberman has personified the Republican wing of the Democratic Party since, at the earliest, losing for VP in 2000. Nobody outside of Connecticut had heard of him before then, anyway, so who knew his voting record?

In any case, the thin veil of conservatism implied by Lieberman on the 2000 ticket didn't work to defeat GWB the first time. Looking to the future, which all good liberals do: the 2008 campaign is all about offering a clear choice of agenda, in opposition to a party that has no standard-bearer, who behave in ways that barely escape violating the Constitution, and who flog an agenda that has failed to do anything but reduce both liberty and opportunity for the common citizen.

As Robert has posted numerous times recently, the key to supplanting Republican neo-conservatism is to not look or act so much like them as to bely any difference beyond which animal is the party symbol. Dumping Lieberman off the right-most wing of the Party aids that effort, pulling the Democratic center you're so concerned about over to the left a tad, where it ought to be headed.

Don't you think certain high-ups in the GOP would just as soon dump pro-choice, anti-"unitary Executive" moderates (like, for instance, Arlen Specter)? Would you lament the loss of the Republican "center" if they did?