>Why in there right minds would they do that?

Did you read the Wikis topic I posted?

The two products have two different development groups and they are going in two different directions. While not visible right now, 4 years from now, the landscape may look like this:

C# will be exactly as it sits today, with some hardcore power features added along the way.
VB.NET will be considerably enhanced and tuned for RAD (capitalizing on all the framework type componenets that the C# community is cutting its teeth on right now) allowing developers unprecedented productivity

This may not be true, but I'm pretty sure it's what MS is thinking. It makes the most sense, and is blindingly obvious based on MS's known methods. The key, as I said before, is that VB.NET is tied to Windows where C# is not.

Say hi to Bonnie for me.