Second tranche guaranteed. Obama issues veto threat.

The second $350 billion tranche (don't you love that word?) is on its way, now practically guaranteed by President-elect Obama's threat to veto any Congressional resolution of disapproval. The original bailout legislation provided for such a resolution as the only method by which Congress could block the disbursement of the second round of funding, and although such resolutions are moving in both houses and likely to get a vote in at least one, no observers I've seen have predicted that either house would be able to override a veto, meaning the money's practically in the pipeline as we speak.

Now here's the kicker: How do we know Obama threatened a veto?

Well sure, CNN has it:

Obama made clear that he doesn't want to issue a veto as one of his first actions in office, but he insisted that he has no choice, senators said.

But hey, who are these "senators?"

I'll give you one guess. Wait. No I won't:

President-elect Barack Obama made his first veto threat Tuesday in a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats. Obama told his former colleagues that if Congress passes a resolution blocking release of the second half of the financial bailout funds he will veto it, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman after leaving the caucus meeting.

Wonderful! I'm pretty sure the fact that CNN only had "senators" in their story has something to do with the fact that moved the HuffPo report to note that this was "a closed-door meeting."

But someone made the mistake of putting a microphone in plain sight, so Joe Lieberman talked into it.

Now, could this have been something Obama wanted "leaked?" Sure. He needs to send a signal that anybody who needs to steal money from the government can be assured that more is on the way. They already know that, of course, because the mechanism that was set up to prevent the release of the second tranche was a house of straw to begin with. A 2/3 vote? Come on. Still, Obama needs for the kind of people who are waiting to steal this money to know that it's still coming even though he's going to be in charge of it.

So, fine. Then that means that although Joe Lieberman was barely hanging on to his status as a Democrat a month or so ago, he's now the guy they give the goodies to and turn loose to the press. Whatever.