I figured the House's attempt to put a timeline on troop withdrawal into the war-funding bill would stall in the Senate. Apparently, I was wrong. The Senate voted to keep in the time table, leaving President Bush in the ugly position of having to veto the war-funding bill. The breakdown of the voting, 50-48, has some interesting betrayals. Sen. Enzi of Wyoming and Sen. Johnson of South Dakota — still recovering from his stroke — didn't vote. The loss of one Republican and one Democrat means 50 Dems and 48 GOP. Given the vote, one would think it broke down on party lines. Not quite. Joe Lieberman, the slavishly hawkish independent from Connecticut, broke ranks with the Dems, as did Arkansas' Mark Pryor, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, with the possible exception of Ben Nelson.

Boltin' Joe shares a tender moment with his favorite war criminal

However, the GOP experienced its own backstabbings, with Chuck Hagel and Goordon Smith both siding with the Dems. Smith has been as reliably turncoat as Lieberman over the last few months, but unlike Joe, Smith is up for re-election in 2008. And unlike Hagel and Pryor, who are also up for re-election, Smith is vulnerable, hailing from highly blue Oregon. It'll be a fairly tough pickup for the Dems (I think Colorado, New Hampshire and Minnesota are all more likely), but still a real possibility.

Gordon Smith, No. 4 with a bullet

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone's recent issue makes mention of something I've long thought worrisome — the fact that ridiculously overpriced Democratic campaign consultants also have a horribly bad track record. The story says that the odeous Bob Shrum has been essentially put out to pasture — something I hadn't heard till now — so that much is good. Anyone who can lose both 2000 and 2004 has no business in politics.

Bob Shrum, loser