The local bloggers are the real netroots heroes in this race, and they prove it again and again with
posts like this one:
Sec. 9-453u. (Formerly Sec. 9-378m). Reservation of party designation.
(a) An application to reserve a party designation with the Secretary of the State and to form a party designation committee may be made at any time after November 3, 1981, by filing in the office of the secretary a written statement signed by at least twenty-five electors who desire to be members of such committee.
(b) The statement shall include the offices for which candidates may petition for nomination under the party designation to be reserved but shall not include an office if no elector who has signed the application is entitled to vote at an election for such office.
(c) The statement shall include the party designation to be reserved which (1) shall consist of not more than three words and not more than twenty-five letters; (2) shall not incorporate the name of any major party; (3) shall not incorporate the name of any minor party which is entitled to nominate candidates for any office which will appear on the same ballot with any office included in the statement; (4) shall not be the same as any party designation for which a reservation with the secretary is currently in effect for any office included in the statement; and (5) shall not be the word "none", or incorporate the words "unaffiliated" or "unenrolled" or any similarly antonymous form of the words "affiliated" or "enrolled".
So legally, on the ballot, Lieberman cannot use his cute little rhetorical phrase, "petitioning Democrat". He wants out of the party, he can't take the name with him.
It belongs to real Democrats.
Update: Just take a moment to savor what happened today -- Joe Lieberman humiliated himself by admitting that an 18-year incumbent who was the vice-presidential nominee for the party in 2000 doesn't think he can win his own party's primary.
That's a lesson for politicians everywhere -- lose touch with your constituents, and people won't be as quick to give you a free pass your next election.