I don’t write about health care, but I have an interest in standing up when my friends are attacked. As it is with Charles Lane’s intemperate and idiotic attack on my good friend Ezra Klein. But I don’t need to pretend to have the understanding of health care that, say, the FDL readership does, because (a) Lane doesn’t actually dispute Ezra’s evidence; (b) performs such high-quality responsible journalism as proving “Joe Lieberman does not oppose insuring everyone” by quoting a talking point on Lieberman’s website while ignoring the substance of Lieberman’s actions; and (c) both Matthew Yglesias and Lane’s own commenters quick the shit out of the guy. So I can kick back and open another beer knowing that Lane has already played himself, and that the longer time goes on, Ezra’s empiricism and allergy to euphemism  — “Threatening to sink the effort because you don’t like a small corner of it is morally irresponsible. And we columnists should not grow so accustomed to the forced courtesies of Washington that we forget how to say so” — will increasingly replace Lane’s ten-brain-cell posture of counterintuition.

And to whichever Lieberman staffers are whispering like Queen Bees about Ezra: I understand that you lack the testicular fortitude to say whatever you say to his face. But speaking for myself, I certainly hope you’ll say it within earshot of his friends one of these days.