By Morton Kondracke

This is no exaggeration: The soul of the Democratic Party – and possibly the future of civility in American politics – is on the line in the Aug. 8 Senate primary in Connecticut.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Conn., one of the last “liberal hawks” in the Democratic Party and a leader in efforts to find bipartisan solutions to America’s problems, is being targeted for defeat by an emergent new left that’s using savage, Internet-based attacks to push moderation out of politics.

If former Greenwich Selectman Ned Lamont beats Lieberman in the Democratic primary, it will represent a signal victory for the MoveOn.org-Michael Moore-DailyKos left wing of the Democratic Party and for vicious name-calling as a political tactic.

The Democratic Party already is handicapped by the fact that its liberal base amounts to just 20 percent of the electorate, while the Republicans’ conservative base is 33 percent, according to decades of polling. Both parties must appeal to the remaining 47 percent who describe themselves as “moderate” – which Democrats can’t do if the left triumphs.

But the left is ascendant. MoveOn’s preferred 2000 presidential candidate, Howard Dean, is now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and the party’s leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid, Nev., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Calif., give every evidence of being influenced by the left-leaning blogosphere’s obsessive hatred of President Bush.