LIEBERMAN AS GOP VP? YOU CALL THAT AN INSIGHT?

Hey, Bill Kristol, you think you're saying something bold and shocking when you recommend Joe Lieberman as a Republican VP candidate? Hell, I was speculating on a Giuliani/Lieberman ticket months ago, when I caught Joe using a variation of Rudy's phrase "terrorists' war on us." (Joe referred to al-Qaeda's "global war against us.")

Rudy apparently didn't catch this bit of flirtation, and I guess Joe felt snubbed, because he didn't say anything like that in his most recent same-old speech, in which, once again, he chastised Democrats as Evil's handmaidens in the terror war. But the speech caught Kristol's attention and inspired his column.

The only reason I think the two front-runners, Giuliani and Romney, might not pick Lieberman is that they're both Northeasterners and are both suspect on abortion and gay rights, two issues on which Lieberman is still not a right-wing Republican. McCain would pick Lieberman in a heartbeat, I think, and I suspect Thompson would, too.

And, actually, Giuliani/Lieberman looks a bit like a GOP version of Clinton/Gore -- a South-leaning party picks two Northerners as a North-leaning party picked two Southerners; a guy with a troubled marital history picks a guy in a long-term marriage (although Hadassah is actually Lieberman's second wife; his earlier divorce is a fact about him everyone seems to have ignored).

And idiots (by which I mean 90% of the media and much of the electorate) would brand a Rudy/Joe ticket as a sign of a profound shift to "moderation" on the GOP's part (which means the Democrats would be painted as "extreme").

This is all speculation, of course. I think Rudy could go any of several ways -- probably not Huckabee (not pro-corporate enough), but a business-friendly Huckabee (Thompson? Haley Barbour?), or maybe a non-white to help him fend off Diallo/Louima/Dorismond stories (I bet it's killing him that Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell lost their recent races, and that anti-immigration types hate Mel Martinez). As for Romney, since he's taken every position known to man on every issue, I can't guess what he'd do.

But this, from Bill Kristol's article, is just silly:

As for Rudy and John and Fred and Mitt and Mike: Take a break from kissing babies to pick up the phone and congratulate Joe. Seek his endorsement after you win the nomination.

Seek it? Whichever one of them wins has already got it.

The only question is which night of the GOP convention Lieberman will get for his prime-time speech.