In the Hartford Courant Colin McEnroe ponders the enigma that is Joe Lieberman:

In the middle of last week, I started wondering if Joe Lieberman has kind of a death wish.

I'm a registered Democrat, and, like a lot of my species here in Connecticut, I don't know whom I'm going to vote for in August. If I had to vote tomorrow, I'd vote for Ned Lamont, but I'd leave the polling place shaking my head, wondering what the hell happened to Joe Lieberman.

That's what I mean about a death wish. Lieberman at times seems to be working hard to make it almost impossible to vote for him.

Update:The Republicans finally found a sacrificial animal--Paul Seitz of Darien to throw into the steel cage. From the news release: "Senator Joe Lieberman supports amnesty for illegal aliens, and a massive influx of visa holders to take American jobs. Lieberman is a champion of free trade who voted for NAFTA. Lieberman now supports continued troops in Iraq and the Arabs having control of our seaports," says Mr. Streitz. "Senator Joseph Lieberman has done about as much damage to this country as one Senator can do."

Joe's tantrum is at firedoglake. Moreoever, you can listen to it here.

Consider his remarks about the controversy here in the state over a bill that would force all hospitals to offer emergency contraceptive pills to rape victims.

Lieberman said the Catholic hospitals shouldn't have to hand out the pills and that transportation should instead be provided, for the rape victim, to some other hospital. He said, "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital."

Wow. You've got a woman who has been raped. She's shattered, shivering, sobbing, frightened. It's 3 a.m. She just spent hours at St. Somebody for the humiliating and invasive process of evidence collection. Now you're going to hustle her into a cab or shuttle bus to go somewhere else and get a pill that would keep her from bearing the rapist's child because you can't stand to prick the conscience of a hospital administrator?

That's taking better care of the administrator than of the rape victim. And the former is generally having a better day than the latter.

It's not even axiomatic that the hospital wants this help. Archbishop Henry Mansell of Hartford tightened the rules against emergency contraception for rape victims a few months ago. Catholic hospitals in Connecticut now are stricter than their counterparts in some neighboring states. The people who work at the hospital may be a lot more comfortable helping a rape victim avoid pregnancy. It's really the archbishop we're lavishing care on.

Lieberman boasts a very favorable lifetime rating of 95 percent from NARAL. With a callous line like the "short ride" comment, he's almost inviting women to desert him.

Lieberman was on my radio show recently, and there was no mistaking, in his voice and attitude, the mélange of hurt feelings, indignation, wounded pride and defiance that will surface in a man who has been a human piñata in his own state and among a certain segment of his own party, nationally.

I've known him since I was 14, and I like him. I caught myself feeling a little guilty over some of the negative stuff I've said about him recently, but then, he brought it on himself.

As much as I admire Lieberman's willingness to stand on principle, I've noticed an arrogance creeping in. It's one thing to support the war and the president, which he does. It's another to say, as he did last year, that those who do not parrot his support are unpatriotic.

"It's time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that in matters of war we undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said.

Wow.