A three-member appeals court panel has ruled that — although polls are forecasting likely defeat, and the candidate now desperately wants to flee the voters — Joe Lieberman must in fact remain on the ballot in his home state.

Or shit, wait a second — that’s Tom Delay.

But who can tell these days? So many Bush supporters and enablers are being systematically purged by voters, even VDB can’t monitor the score card properly. Voters in Spain, in Italy, in England, and — any day now — in Texas and Connecticut.

Not only is Lieberman now down 13% in polls ahead of the Tuesday Connecticut Democratic primary, he has all but cancelled his get-out-the-vote operation on election day.

We thought the slogan “I am not George W. Bush!” was an omen of defeat. But cancelling your GOTV operation, when you’re an 18-year incumbent? That’s pharmaceutical-strength fear.

Clearly, Big Joe has decided to look past the primary, toward the independent run he has threatened all along. The poor deluded sanctimonious fool. Lamont all but reversed Lieberman’s 15-point edge in two months among Democrats, and once he’s officially a giant-killer, and the national money begins to flow, Lieberman will find himself experiencing a horrific case of deja vu: his standing among Republicans and Independents dropping, day by day, as they confront the spectacle of a recently arrogant Senator now deep in terminal flop sweat.

If you oppose the war in Iraq — the misleading premises, the botched execution, the criminally stubborn refusal to recalibrate the deployment — then rest assured: majorities here, there and everywhere have now come around to your way of thinking. The architects of the War — and the opportunistic lickspittles crouching at the feet of the architects — are now getting the Word.

And the Word only has three letters: Out.