( Robert Kagan has a must-read piece in Sunday's Washington Post on Lieberman and his critics.) Yes, they're out there. Thursday's Los Angeles Times poll found that a majority of Democrats prefer neutrality to alignment with Israel. But 39 percent disagree. They believe the US shouldn't remain neutral as Israel defends itself against groups and nations that would like to drive it into the Mediterranean Sea. All of this brings me to the Connecticut senator. Should Al Gore's running mate go down next Tuesday to the candidate of moveon.org, Republicans should be ready to speak to those pro-Lieberman Democrats who have grown increasingly uncomfortable with their party's leftward drift on national security. The media will portray a Lieberman primary defeat as a rebuke to Bush's Iraq policy. But it will say a lot more about a political party that has purged its strongest voice on security matters and signaled retreat in the war on terror (Someone at the RNC may want to monitor the reaction of unfriendly foreign media/web sites to a Lieberman defeat). And, as the LA Times poll suggests, there may be many Lieberman Democrats across the country willing to part company with their party - which is why, as William Kristol explains in this editorial, "a Lieberman victory as an independent candidate in November would be so important."