Sep. 7--When Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman spoke at the Republican National Convention, he was not so naive as to imagine he would not be punished. He's been through this before.

When, as a Democrat, he crossed the party leadership by supporting the war in Iraq, it undermined the party's election strategy to use opposition to the war to win the White House and increase their majorities in both houses of Congress. That was back when they thought the war would be the central issue in the campaign, rather than the sixth or seventh most important issue.

When the long-time Democratic senator, just a few years after appearing on the Democratic presidential ticket with Al Gore, advocated staying in Iraq until we achieved victory, he so angered his party's leadership that they ran another Democrat against him in the 2006 primary. Lieberman was forced to run as an independent.

The war has turned out to be a nonfactor in this race. With the success of the surge strategy under Gen. David Petraeus -- which Barack Obama finally acknowledges succeeded "beyond (his) wildest dreams" -- and withdrawal of U.S. troops already under way, neither party has much of a political advantage on the war.

But Lieberman's newest sin -- playing nice with Republicans -- is unforgivable. Although he caucuses (and votes) with the Democrats, the party will make him pay for speaking at the RNC. He is almost certain to be stripped of his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

If McCain is elected, it won't matter, at least to Lieberman's public service career. The Republican who considers Lieberman a close friend and political ally will undoubtedly give him a plum cabinet position.

McCain signaled as much by promising, in his nomination acceptance speech, to appoint Democrats and independents to his administration. It could not have been any clearer to political observers than if he had said, "I will name Joe Lieberman secretary of state."

In fact, insiders say Lieberman was still his first choice for veep until just days before he named Sarah Palin. Although either choice would have been groundbreaking, choosing Lieberman would have angered core Republicans even more than Lieberman's speech at the RNC angered Democrats.

By selecting Palin, McCain shored up support from the Republican base -- social, fiscal and security conservatives. That freed him up to reach out in his own speech to moderate Democrats and independents and all who are tired of Washington partisanship.

McCain's speech was a departure from the acceptance speeches that candidates have always delivered at nominating conventions. In fact, it stood in marked contrast to Obama's speech a week earlier.

The silver-tongued Obama's better delivery did not change the fact that the content of his speech was boilerplate: the other party is to blame for all our woes, and our party -- with me at the helm -- will fix it.

McCain did not criticize Democrats, he criticized partisanship. The enemy is not the other party, he said, but the entrenched Washington culture of corruption and pork barrel spending and the blind pursuit of personal power, which he said afflicts both parties. It sounded remarkably like the message Lieberman delivered earlier in the week.

Don't tell the party faithful, who were never enamored with McCain, but he may have selected Palin less for her conservative credentials than for her history of standing up to fellow Republicans.

McCain is indeed a maverick, as is his Democrat-turned-independent friend Lieberman. Is it too much to hope for their speeches last week signal the beginning of the end of partisanship?

Yes, of course it is. But there's no harm in imagining what that would be like.

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