A closely-watched Senate primary 3,000 miles away has given a morale boost to Washington Greens.

As Joe Lieberman last night conceded the Connecticut Democratic primary to anti-war challenger Ned Lamont, Seattle resident Aaron Dixon was sending out a press release warning that "Progressives are through with tolerating pro-war candidates."

It was, of course, a shot across the bow of Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, whom Dixon -- a Green Party member -- is challenging. Dixon says he's received "an outpouring" of support, including endorsements from two Seattle school board members and a city councilman in Olympia.

It's true that Cantwell, like Lieberman and a lot of other Democrats, supported the decision to invade Iraq and has repeatedly stood by that vote as the right thing to do. But she has also opposed the creation of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, called for bringing "more of our troops home" this year, and repeatedly criticized President Bush for not building better international support for the ongoing operations in Iraq.

It's also true while Lamont is multi-millionaire whose campaign drew a tidal wave of cash, a broad base of blogging operatives and a pickup-truck-toted papier mache depiction of his famous embrace with Bush, Dixon is a former prison inmate running a shoestring campaign against an entrenched incumbent who swept aside -- OK, hired for $8k a month -- her earliest and most vocal primary opponent.

Dixon's take:

"A key difference between my candidacy and Ned Lamont's is that Greens realized long ago that trying to fix the Democratic Party is not realistic."

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