We can leverage the power of running primary candidates against 'centrist' Democrats into something mighty--and mighty frightening. As Stoller says, we don't have much institutional research ... but we have more than we think.

Politicians worry about primaries; they probably worry more than necessary, even. Yes, we lost with Lieberman--though we forced him to do his backstabbing from the front--but we cost him a lot of money and a lot of sleepless nights. And some humilitation, too.

What if a very visible members of the netroots--Stoller or Bowers, in short--ran a weekly 'Primary Challenge' diary here and on dKos, etc.? They'd write a little blurb about the Democrats who they think most deserved a primary that week, and then community members would list their own suggestions in comments: one per comment title, perhaps.

Per TPMCafe, looks like there's 'extremely high turnout' in Rhode Island today. This means 'independents may be coming out to prevent defeat at the hands of conservative primary challenger Steve Laffey.'

Ah... but the first (and only, at this point) comment on that thread reads: "Well here's one independent ... who voted in the Republican primary to cast a vote for Laffey."

So. Are these Independents coming out in force to help Chafee or to sink him? I've read more than once, here on MyDD, that Independents are hewing much more closely to Democrats this year than previously: with the RI primary tell us how closely, in fact, they are? If Independents want to save Chafee, what does that mean for our changes in November?