Lieberman's Weekend

You know the first part. On Sunday, Lieberman double-crossed the Dems on health care. Again. It's hard to argue with Ezra Klein's take on it:

To put this in context, Lieberman was invited to participate in the process that led to the Medicare buy-in. His opposition would have killed it before liberals invested in the idea. Instead, he skipped the meetings and is forcing liberals to give up yet another compromise. Each time he does that, he increases the chances of the bill's failure that much more. And if there's a policy rationale here, it's not apparent to me, or to others who've interviewed him. At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals. That is to say, he seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score.

And yet...

On Saturday, that very same Joe Lieberman walked from Georgetown to the Hill in the cold to provide Democrats with the 60th and winning vote on the remaining-but-one 2010 Appropriations bill.

"Shabbat shalom [peaceful Sabbath]," Lieberman said to photographers as he entered the Capitol, after attending morning services on the second day of Hanukkah and then walking more than three miles to the Capitol on a cold December morning. He cast the 60th vote -- the minimum number needed -- for the $446.8 billion spending bill covering the Justice and State departments, among other agencies.

I have no conclusion, other than that it makes plenty of sense for the Dems to continue keeping Lieberman in the family; he really is providing important votes for them sometimes. Take away his committee, and he probably crosses the aisle for good, and starts voting more like McCain than McCaskill.

And then, you get what he did Sunday. Same guy. Go figure.