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It wasn't the double digit win I had been hoping for, but it was a win.

Thanks in no small part to the netroots, one of the most prominent Senators in the Democratic Party just lost a primary challenge to a man who a few months ago was a complete unknown. This is a huge moment for both the party and for our politics in general.

Lamont gets it. Lieberman does not. The man lost, and yet he refuses to accept the result. He's already gone public with a promise to abandon his party and run as an independent.

Thankfully, it looks like his party isn't going to sit by and let this happen. Not only have Sens Bayn and Clinton already thrown their support to Lamont, but Rahm Emmanuel, the leader of the Democratic House Congressional campaign, has already come out and hit Lieberman hard. Check this out:

“This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the leader of the Democratic House Congressional campaign. “This is not about the war. It’s blind loyalty to Bush.”

Now this makes for an interesting contrast. As I'm typing this, I'm listening to coverage of the race on a special 1am edition of Hardball on MSNBC. Although they cannot seem to agree on whether this is good or bad for the Dems, they all apparently agree that no matter what Democratic Party leaders might say about supporting Lamont, they won't necessarily work to undermine Lieberman. But I think that's just ridiculous. Let me explain...

Having lost his party's primary in a fair fight, the man has decided to leave his party to campaign against its nominee. No matter how hard he might try to spin otherwise, he is going to have to actively campaign against the Democratic Party this fall. Why on earth does anyone think Dems will sit by silently and let that happen?

Call me crazy, but I suspect that Lieberman won't end up doing this. He may bluster about it for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but in the end I suspect he'll back away. People want this to be complex, but I don't think it is. In my opinion, this is actually quite simple...

Americans love winners. They also hate losers. But if there's one thing they hate worse than losers, its sore losers. And the way Liberman is behaving right now, he very well may become the poster child for sore losers. Sure, polls taken prior to today's vote may have shown him winning a hypothetical 3-way race, but that was before he actually lost the primary. Now that he's lost, I suspect we'll see those numbers change dramatically.

Joe, you lost. Get over it. And yes, please - go away. You've served your time. Now, please... Go home.

UPDATE: Want more? Publius has the goods. His comments under the section "There Is No Middle" are particularly interesting. Political sea changes don't occur because people run to the center. Realignments by definition are about reshaping politics, about redefining what right and left mean. They happen by clarifying differences, not diminishing them.

Don't believe me? Watch what prominent Dems do following this loss. Watch the way the party begins to clarify its message. Watch the way, as Publius predicts, candidates like Clinton begin to run away from the "center" and towards their own party.

Politicians are, a famous thinker once said, "single-minded seekers of re-election." When re-election is your primary goal, fear can be an incredibly powerful motivator. And no matter what they might say publicly tomorrow, tonight there are a number of them who are very, very afraid.