Jumpin' Joe Lieberman has once again managed to freak out Connecticut Democrats of nearly every persuasion.

Left-wingers are firing rockets into the blogosphere. Some long-time Lieberman loyalists are sadly shaking their heads. And pro-Dodd establishment types are seething at what Joe may be doing to his old buddy Chris Dodd's reelection chances.

Lieberman's accomplished this with a few comments in the past week about siding with Republicans to block a U.S. Senate vote on a public-option health care bill, and campaigning for some GOP candidates next year.

These are trademark moves by Connecticut's self-described "independent Democrat," designed to capture the spotlight and emphasize how much more responsible, non-partisan and noble he is than his poor, clueless, tradition-bound former Democratic colleagues.

Lieberman insists his only concern is that a public health insurance option "would create a whole new federal government entitlement program for which taxpayers will eventually be on the line, and at a time when taxpayers are deep enough on the line and our national government is in the biggest debt it's ever been in." On CBS's "Face the Nation" show, Lieberman said he'd be willing to kill all health care reform to avoid a public option.

"I feel relevant," Lieberman said during a conference call with reporters.

Such sentiments on a big-time issue wouldn't seem all that inflammatory, except for the rocky history between Dodd and his junior senatorial colleague. There is also the reality that this isn't just any policy dispute for Dodd.

Health care reform has huge political significance for Dodd. It's the kind of issue Dodd needs now, when he's politically wounded, dragging in the polls and facing his roughest reelection campaign ever.

Dodd's popularity plunged amid questions about his favorable mortgage deal while Senate banking chairman; voter unhappiness here when Dodd moved his family to Iowa as a presidential campaign gimmick; and anger over bonuses for AIG executives as the economy collapsed.

Health care is also a gut-level matter for Dodd. The issue was Teddy Kennedy's last great crusade and, just before he succumbed to brain cancer, Kennedy passed the health care torch to his old friend Chris.

"What makes Lieberman's actions so bizarre, so self-righteous, so fucked up ... is that he would do this to Dodd," says Jonathan Pelto, a 35-year member of that group of Dodd devotees known as the Dodd Squad.

Pelto, a former political director for the Democratic State Central Committee, is aghast that Lieberman's doing it now, "at the very moment that it's most destructive to Chris Dodd."

"If he wants to vote against the final [health care] bill, then vote against it," says former state Democratic Chairman George Jepsen, a Lieberman critic who was chairman of Ned Lamont's successful 2006 effort to wrench the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination away from Joe. (Lieberman went independent and won reelection to a fourth term.)

"It's especially a stab in the back to Chris Dodd, whose been nothing but good to Joe Lieberman," adds Jepsen. He notes it was Dodd who convinced the U.S. Senate Democratic caucus to take Lieberman back after his pro-GOP, anti-Obama act last year.

Even former state House Speaker Jim Amann, a Milford Democrat who argued his party screwed up by backing Lamont and applauded Lieberman's 2006 independent run, believes his good friend has gone too far this time. "I think Joe should support it or not support it," Amann says of the health care legislation, "but let the debate go through. ... I think it's wrong not to allow that debate."

The Lieberman haters on the left of the Democratic Party have gone ballistic, as might be expected. Their anti-Joe rage is now spilling over to singe Dodd and other Democratic leaders for failing to kick Lieberman out of the caucus and the party.

"The Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves," reads a typical comment on the Democratic blog MyLeftNutmeg.com. "Our weak-assed leadership is completely responsible for Lieberman having any power at all right now."

Lieberman loyalists, like Dan Gerstein, argue all this Democratic teeth-gnashing is way out of proportion to the realities of the health care debate.

"There's a tendency in politics, particularly in Connecticut politics ... to create a soap opera where one doesn't exist," says Gerstein.

Gerstein ran Lieberman's 2006 campaign, was hired later to provide political consulting services, and remains what he describes as a "friend in the Lieberman orbit."

According to Gerstein, there is no long record of tension between Dodd and Lieberman. He argues the only real source of friction was that 2006 dust-up involving Lamont. Most Connecticut politicians have a different perspective, and cite chapter and verse from the Book of Chris and Joe.

In 2000, Dodd was clearly miffed at being shoved to the sidelines when Lieberman became the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate. In 2004, Dodd was contemplating a try for the Democratic presidential nomination when Lieberman launched his own, abortive bid for president.

Then came 2006, when Dodd campaigned hard for Lieberman in that Democratic U.S. Senate primary and reluctantly endorsed Lamont as the primary winner. Lieberman took it hard, although most Democrats say Dodd had no other choice as a party leader.

When Lieberman won as an independent, Dodd convinced his Democratic colleagues to let Lieberman remain in the Senate caucus.

Last year, without waiting for Dodd's long-shot presidential bid to end, Lieberman endorsed Republican John McCain. Later, Lieberman spoke at the Republican National Convention and campaigned hard against Obama.

But Dodd once again went to bat for Lieberman, who was allowed to stay in the Democratic caucus and keep his Senate chairmanship.

Lieberman has endorsed Dodd's 2010 reelection effort, but last week he also told ABC News that he will "probably support some Republican candidates for Congress or Senate. ... I'm going to call them as I see them."

Dodd still refuses to retaliate against his "old friend."

"No, no, no," Dodd says when asked if Lieberman should be punished for deserting the Democrats again. "People are going to be all over the place. ... The idea that people are going to be reprimanded because somehow they have a different point of view than someone else is ridiculous. That isn't going to happen."

Dodd says he plans to "continue to make my case to Joe."

Pelto and others worry Dodd's refusal to distance himself from Lieberman will affect the tough 2010 campaign, creating an environment where "lots of Democrats will be angry with Chris Dodd for not kicking Joe Lieberman out when he had the chance," Pelto says.

Amid their worries over Dodd's reelection, Connecticut Democrats are also wondering what Lieberman will do when his term is up in 2012. As one party insider put it, there are those who are already "sharpening their swords," just in case.