IS THE loss of Connecticut a setback to Bush and his Iraq policy is the question that is haunting both sides of the political divide in the US. Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman has been representing Connecticut in Washington for 18 years.

He could have become vice-president as Al Gore's running mate in 2000. Four years later he ran for presidency. But his Democratic credentials have a knot of Republican friendship with President George Bush.

That's his Achilles' heel that the anti-war activists and liberal bloggers have taken advantage of to vote him out in the primary on August 8 in favour of a political novice called Ned Lamont. More to the point, it's no more than a local contest but a virtual referendum on Bush's Iraq policy that is being increasingly viewed as his Waterloo in the November polls for Senate and House of Representatives by his opponents and neo-cons' critics.

Lieberman's loss is Lamon't gain, on whom Democrats are now betting as the party's winning face. Though Republican big wigs have brushed off Lieberman's defeat as insignificant, it does reflect the anti-war sentiments of a section of voters whose strength is growing with daily losses of American lives in Iraq. Besides, Bush's poll ratings are not high enough to enthuse voters to turn them around on Iraq.

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