The Senate vote was 99-0

In the UK, the Labour Party has treated opponents of the Iraq war with the same sort of disdain as the Dims have here: After all, they say, where else are they going to go?

Well, someone, the Beeb lets us know, came up with an answer.

Long-time Labour backbencher Brian Sedgemore has defected to the Lib Dems. [For those here in the US, that's the Liberal Democrats.]

Mr Sedgemore, who spent 27 years as a Labour MP, accused Tony Blair of "stomach turning lies".

He said he wanted to give the Labour leader a "bloody nose" at the polls but Mr Blair argued voters were interested in policies. ...

Mr Sedgemore, like the Lib Dems, voted against the government over the Iraq war, anti-terror laws, top-up fees and foundation hospitals. ...

Mr Sedgemore accused Mr Blair of ditching key liberal principles, saying plans to allow house arrest for terror suspects had been the final straw.

So a British MP has switched parties not as a tactical political maneuver but as a matter of political principle. Rare enough anywhere to be worthy of note.

Meanwhile, the Senate voted 99-0 to give Shrub all the bucks he wanted to continue the killing in Iraq.

Footnote: The closest recent equivalent in the US would be Jim Jeffords, who quit the GOP to become an independent in 2001 because it had moved too far to the right for his brand of moderate conservatism. He apparently has found the experience liberating:

[H]is March 22 performance on Vermont Public Radio's "Switchboard" program raised a few eyebrows. ...

Jeffords, who opposes the war in Iraq, predicted the Bush administration would start a war in Iran to help elect a third member of the Bush clan to the White House.

"I think it was all done to get oil," Jeffords said of invading Iraq. "And the loss of life that we had, and the cost of it, was to me just a re-election move, and they're going to try to live off it. Probably start another war, wouldn't be surprised, next year. Probably in Iran."

"Do you think that's likely?" VPR host Bob Kinzel asked.

"I probably shouldn't even talk on it, I just feel so bitter about the thinking that's gone on behind them, and the reasons they go to war and went to war," Jeffords replied. "But I feel very strongly that they are looking ahead, and that there will be an opportunity to go into Iran and try to get their son elected president. I don't know, but you do it each time they (are) going to have a new president. I'm very, very (Jeffords chuckles). Oh, well, I better be quiet."

In an interview this week, Jeffords spokesman Erik Smulson didn't back away from his boss's comments....

On the other hand, while Jeffords talked the talk, he didn't walk the walk: He was among the Club 99. (Daniel Inouye [D-HI] was the one who didn't vote.)

Jeffords has announced he will retire at the end of his current term, in 2007. The current odds-on favorite to replace him: Rep. Bernie Sanders. That could be interesting.