Good news, but sad news.

Joe Lieberman's loss in the Connecticut primary and Cynthia McKinney's melt-down in Georgia are both good news. McKinney was barking mad and a racist at that, so good riddance whether a Democrat or a Republican ultimately takes her seat. Lieberman's demolition by the angry left is sign of the Democratic Party's further marginalization. Remember that this is the man who saved Bill Clinton's presidency, and who was deemed worthy to carry the party's banner as a vice-presidential candidate. Now the Democrats' moonbat wing has forced him from the party in what can be fairly described as a purge. As a conservative, I must admit that the spectacle of the party of FDR and John Kennedy turing into the party of wealthy eccentrics like Al Gore and Michael Moore, dimbulbs and dilettantes like John Kerry, Chivas-soaked has-beens like Ted Kennedy, and nutcases like Cindy Sheehan engenders a bit of schadenfreude. But as an American, I find it sad. The Democrats are headed for schism, and the Republicans will be the stronger for it, but politics in America will be the poorer. In a way this reflects the end of a Cold War consensus on national security that perhaps should have ended with the Cold War. Perhaps it will lead to ideological realignment similar to the UK's Tories and New Labour, but the road to a new stability where ideological differences end where existential threats to the nation begin will be a long and unpleasant one.