gee, Mike, the rest of us knew he was a scorpion before you got into the water

but that was then

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) held a fundraiser for Lieberman at his home in November, co-hosted by former mayor Ed Koch (D) and former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato (R). Koch called Lieberman "one of the greatest Senators we've ever had in the Senate.

and this is now

Mayor Bloomberg's buddy Sen. Joseph Lieberman agreed yesterday that risk is the top factor in beefing up homeland security - but still wouldn't fix a formula that stiffs New York City.

That was after Bloomberg testified before Lieberman's Homeland Security Committee in hopes of persuading the Connecticut independent to kill a formula that guarantees each state a minimum share of anti-terror funding.

"Time and time again, our calls for fully risk-based homeland security funding have been ignored," Bloomberg said. "Instead, we have seen huge sums of homeland security money spread across the country like peanut butter."

Lieberman agreed New York is full of targets, but still contended small states like his need to guard against terrorists and deserve their peanut butter. "Everybody and everything is at risk in America," he said.

By his definition, homeland security funding already is handed out mostly based on risk. But he said fighting over how the money is divided isn't the answer; instead, the government should give out more cash.

"It's unbelievable and outrageous that homeland security grant funding has been cut over 40% since 2004," Lieberman said. "If we begin to raise that back up . . . the city is going to get more money."

to sum up: Michael Chertoff says the money went to the wrong people last year and the formula should be fixed.

Joe Lieberman thinks things are fine the way they are.

Good work, Mike and Ed.