The Jackson-Sharpton team-up also tells us something. There never has been much love lost between the two. Jackson, you might recall, refused to endorse Sharpton's presidential bid in 2004.

However, the two leaders pair up now because the far left, where they sow their oats, and where, of course, Ned Lamont and MoveOn.org think this country wants to go, is losing, not gaining, ground.

For increasing numbers of blacks, the Lamont-MoveOn-Jackson-Sharpton far left message is all "been there, done that." Black America is moving away from, not toward, this.

When Jackson ran for president in 1984 and 1988, he made inroads. In 1984 he won five primaries, in 1988 he won 11. By contrast, Sharpton, in his pathetic campaign in 2004, garnered a grand total of 26 delegates, 1 percent of what's needed for nomination. He couldn't even get 10 percent of the vote in South Carolina, where Jackson was victorious, with its heavy concentration of black voters.

The title of a new book by National Public Radio journalist Juan Williams, not exactly one of the names that gets dropped when folks talk about black conservatives, sums up the state of affairs: "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America _ And What We Can Do About It."

Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report points out that Lieberman captured the vote in cities across Connecticut, such as Stamford, where "there are still sizeable blue-collar and black communities." These are what Barone calls the "lunch bucket working class," who can't afford to lose touch with reality.

I've been writing for years about the need for a viable Democratic Party. The success and future of this country depends on solid debate and exchange of real ideas.

This is exactly what we are not getting and what is driving much of the voter dissatisfaction that we're seeing in the polls. There is just so long we can go on with only one party generating ideas and the other saying "No."

The Connecticut primary amounted to a dangerous retreat into fantasyland, not a steppingstone for the future. It's in the interest of the nation and of the Republican Party that an empty, bankrupt Democratic Party get its act together.