ANOTHER PROMISE LIEBERMAN CAN BREAK?

In today's New York Times, Bill Kristol is desperately trying to persuade the GOP base to give gutless John McCain permission to pick the running mate he really wants, Joe Lieberman. A key bargaining chip, we're told, would be this (emphasis added):

McCain has made clear his will be a pro-life administration. And as a one-off, quasi-national-unity ticket, with Lieberman renouncing any further ambition to run for the presidency, a McCain-Lieberman administration wouldn't threaten the continuance of the G.O.P. as a pro-life party. In other areas, no one seriously thinks the policies of a McCain-Lieberman administration would be appreciably different from those, say, of a McCain-Pawlenty administration.

Er, why should anti-abortion Republicans believe a Lieberman vow not to run for president when Lieberman lied to Democrats about this in 2006?



"I want Democrats to be back in the majority in Washington and elect a Democratic president in 2008. This man [Ned Lamont] and his supporters will frustrate and defeat our hopes of doing that."

Oh, and besides that: in addition to Lieberman promising not to run, wouldn't McCain, er, have to promise not to die?

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BONUS KRISTOL KNEESLAPPER: On the advantages to Republicans of a McCain-Lieberman ticket:

The charge that McCain would merely mean a third Bush term would also tend to fall flat.

Stop, Bill, you're killing me.