Look, I understand statesmanship and diplomacy and the pursuit of peace, love and understanding, but there’s a nagging, partisan part of me that really, really thinks Sen. Joe Lieberman should have had to endure slightly more punishment for his repeated and heated campaign appearances with John McCain and Sarah Palin during their failed run for the White House.

In a 42-13 secret ballot vote, Democratic senators approved a resolution stripping Lieberman of a subcommittee chairmanship, but allowing him to remain chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

No staff members were allowed as Democratic senators filed into the old Senate chamber at 9:30 a.m. for leadership elections and other party business. The fate of the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee was the first agenda item, as his colleagues discussed whether he would be punished for slights to the party.

Before the vote, Lieberman gave what one senator described as a “heartfelt” speech explaining his actions.

“He did not say he regretted supporting McCain, but he did say he regretted some of the things he said,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Things like this?

“John McCain had the guts to argue against public opinion, to put his whole campaign on the line, because, as he says, he’d rather lose an election than lose in a war that he thinks is this important to the United States,” Lieberman said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“If Barack Obama’s policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn’t be in Iraq today,” Lieberman said, adding that Obama “was prepared to accept retreat and defeat.”

I understand why his colleagues in the Senate voted the way they did, and I applaud their magnanimity.

But.

I still think Lieberman should have to do a bit more public groveling for choosing to be an outspoken advocate for the wrong side of history.