My take was that he was just voting against Condi as a ruse, so the left of the party would think well of him. Now I'm convinced that no matter why he voted against her, it will come back to bite him on the butt. (Good news as far as I'm concerned, because until this vote, he was the only demo candidate that I feared in 2008.)
We're in sync. I just posted that "the mask dropped" before reading your comments.
Yes, it's good to have the cards on the table.