Even though Democrats appear to have won the first round of Social Security reform (this is, but trying to kill it altogether in favor of the status quo), they aren’t taking victory for granted:

But at a time when many Democrats are congratulating one another, others are beginning to worry that their strategy of rigid opposition has not begun to pay any political dividends and that Bush could yet outflank them before this fight is over.

The party’s situation was posed most provocatively by two veteran Democratic strategists, Stan Greenberg and James Carville. In a memo issued last week, the two wrote: “We ask progressives to consider, why have the Republicans not crashed and burned?”

“Why has the public not taken out their anger on the congressional Republicans and the president?” they added. “We think the answer lies with voters’ deeper feelings about the Democrats who appear to lack direction, conviction, values, advocacy or a larger public purpose.”

This issue is going to separate the men from the boys. And the one example of manhood among the Democrats in the Senate is Joe Lieberman, who says that there is a problem and is calling for reform (albeit not with the president’s private accounts):

“I think he has betrayed his constituency and he is leaning way too far to the right,” said Marjorie Clark, a Web designer in New Haven and former supporter of Howard Dean’s presidential bid who met Wednesday with about 30 other former Dean supporters and discussed a statewide “Dump Joe” effort. Others are trying to recruit a primary opponent while passing out bumper stickers that read “Anybody But Joe.”

Their disappointment with Mr. Lieberman illustrates the difficulty of trying to be a centrist in an increasingly polarized political climate. Mr. Lieberman has gone from a possible Democratic heir apparent to a presidential primary footnote in 2004 to the conspicuous odd man out in his own Senate party caucus.

There are, of course, the usual offensive leftist communities dedicated to the cause of replacing Lieberman.

Personally, I think the parties should do a trade ala Gary Powers/Rudolf Abel — we get Lieberman for McCain. I think we’d come out ahead.