Romance is in the air today across the land. But in Washington, the buzz continues about "The Kiss." No, not Gustav Klimt's famous painting. It's the big fat one an exuberant President Bush planted on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's right cheek as he waded through the Capitol crowd after the State of the Union a couple of weeks ago.

... There's been K Street chatter, our colleague Jeffrey H. Birnbaum tells us, that Lieberman could be on an administration list to replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the next year or so.

That would be convenient for Lieberman, whose term is up in 2006, and could give Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) an opportunity to appoint a Republican to the seat for at least a few months before the election, inching the GOP closer to a filibuster-proof Senate.

Or maybe it's just love?

--Washington Post

In Luke 22, Judas kisses Jesus and Jesus is arrested. I wonder if Bush, who prides himself on being a loyal follower of the Guy Upstairs, had this in mind when he kissed Lieberman. The two stories aren't quite analogous, of course -- Judas betrayed the man he kissed, while the man Bush kissed is teaming up with Bush to betray his own party -- but I suspect Bush isn't enough of an actual scholar of the Bible (or logical thinker) to grasp that.