The only reason why this is seen as an upset is because Lieberman is a long standing incumbent.

People who lose in primaries go on to run in general elections around the country all the time, with and without party endorsements, etc.

That said, I think Lieberman will drop out only when it becomes clear TO HIM, that he will lose.

I doubt his pockets are deep enough to go toe to toe w/the party's multi-millioniare candidate, who will likely get the lion's share of the money being thrown at this race.

Which won't be much, incidentally. No one is predicting the current Republican candidate has a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Which means it's a continuation of the race, just like Lieberman says.

Lieberman has all the arrogance of power about him, just like Tom De Lay does. But neither of them are stupid. Lieberman may have a shot at winning. A long shot, but a shot nonetheless. And I don't think that would hurt the Democratic party in it's current incarnation one bit. Because the rules only matter when THEY need them, not when the voters need them.

De Lay, et al are putting up the mayor of Sugarbush as a write-in candidate, in hopes of being able to defeat the Democrat who is, right now, a shoe-in for winning in November against De Lay. That's a pretty big long shot too. Except it works every now and then, as this Ohio candidate proved recently.