Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000 will face a primary this year for the first time in his 18 years in office.

The opponent: Greenwich, CT businessman Ned Lamont.

Lamont hopes to win the support of Democrats uncomfortable with Lieberman’s stand on Iraq and his perceived closeness to President Bush’s administration.

“Our troops are making their country proud with their service,” Lamont said on his campaign Web site. “But this war is not making us any safer. It’s time for U.S. troops to move to the background and let the Iraqi people step forward and take responsibility for their own destiny.”

Lamont, a 52-year-old graduate of Harvard and the Yale School of Management, founded his own telecommunications company, Lamont Digital Systems, in 1984. He said he is prepared to spend some of his own money on the campaign.

There is no doubt that Sen. Lieberman is a centrist politician. He has embraced many of the Bush policies, including the war in Iraq, which are very unpopular in the Democratic Party and especially in New England.

Should Lieberman be replaced? That decision is up to the citizens of Connecticut. Online activists are working hard to defeat Lieberman and rightly so, as the progressive community is not happy with his support for Bush and his moderate policies.

From Political Wire:

Ned Lamont (D), who just announced a primary challenge to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and is the latest darling of the liberal netroots, once ran for state senate in Connecticut and used the services of political consultant Dick Morris, who now dismisses the chances of his former client.

Says Morris: “He need not be taken very seriously. Lieberman is not vulnerable and a primary will only make him that much stronger (assuming Ned even gets on the ballot).”

This will be an interesting primary. Stay tuned.