McCain-Lieberman ‘08—we can’t say we weren’t forewarned
Nestled in the second-to-last paragraph of Bill Kristol’s morning op-ed in the Times is a rather fascinating series of suggestions:
”Perhaps the most obvious way McCain could upend the normal dynamics of this year’s election would be a bold vice presidential choice. He could pick a hawkish and principled Democrat like Joe Lieberman. He could reach beyond the usual bevy of elected officials by tapping either David Petraeus or Raymond Odierno — the two generals who together, in an amazing demonstration of leadership and competence, turned the war in Iraq around last year. He could persuade the most impressive conservative in American public life, Clarence Thomas, to join the ticket. There are other unorthodox possibilities.”
The term “floating” usually refers to a politician’s leak to the press or passing mention of an idea as a “not committed” way of gaging press reaction or pushing an idea inside the party—Hillary’s speculations about a Clinton/Obama ticket being an excellent example.
More recently, the floating dynamic has been reversed as prominent neoconservative journalists have dropped innocent little “perhaps you might want to” suggestions that, if not quite amounting to marching orders, were meant to be taken very seriously by the powers that be. In the Harriet Miers fiasco, the White House followed Charles Krauthammer’s directions to a T in seeking a graceful exit for Ms. Miers.
Kristol has a long history with McCain, and there’s no doubt the McCain camp is arguing over which one of Bill’s suggestions would be best.
Clarence Thomas for VP is rather interesting, and I can’t say that I’ve heard it before. Even if Thomas has been rather unassuming on the bench, echoing Scalia when he speaks at all, Kristol is right that Thomas is rock solid on ever major conservative issue (although his foreign policy is unknown). But I suspect more shallow motives are at play—in Thomas the GOP could have a black politician who’s not Condoleezza Rice. The current Secretary of State is reportedly far too much of a “realist” for Kristol to tolerate.
Petraeus and Odierno would stand as symbols of heroism and, whether Kristol likes it or not, diminish the power of the vice president’s office back to that of its pre-Cheney days.
Then there’s Liebermann, the “principled” Democrat, which basically means that’s he’s avidly pro-war. I’ve written a lot about the tenuous relationship between the conservative movement, talk-radio “base” and the GOP, and how for the first time in eight years, if not longer, the ties that bind were coming undone—before the two factions became re-hitched when a traditional easy-to-hate enemy resurfaced. A Liebermann nomination would break it all up again, as the base would recognize at some level that with a McCain-Lieberman partnership, they could bid farewell to all that limited government stuff they often like to talk about. They’d also see a lot of “Comprehensive” immigration reform in their future.
A McCain-Lieberman would completely alienate the “talk-radio” base—and for what? Who besides Kristol and his inside-the-beltway friends would possibly be attracted to this conglomeration?
It’s also interesting to step back and look at Kristol’s suggestions within the context of the essay as a whole. Kristol’s piece is basically about how it’s gonna be tough being a Republican in ’08, and yet with Lieberman, Kristol wants to emphasize—emphasize above everything else—that certain government program most responsible for Bush’s below-freezing approval ratings.
Good luck with that, Bill.
Comments
McCain/Lieberman would be a great reality check for true conservatives to ask why they are still republicans? There is no living human in this world that could influence me to vote for McAmnesty! I hope the Democrat nomination goes down to the convention floor, and is settled with clubs and knives! The GOP has already imploded.
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Neocons can end the hypocrisy and call for an Olmert-McCain republican ticket.
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If there are any Rubeublicans left who need a Lieberman nomination to convince them that their lobotomized GOP is no longer in favor of small government, I have a suggestion.
Take a look at your dollar, your economy, your consumer confidence level, your FED, your banking industry, your National Guard, those mysterious beeping noices on your phone and your ever-fattening government and ask yourself if what you see is a prudently operating small government eight long years after you elected your beloved “Compassionate Conservative”.
While you are still dumbfounded and perhaps a tad mad, write a little letter to that proud scion of the Time’s Schulzberger clan and tell him how much you like his latest choice of a “conservative” journalist. Suggest perhaps that he might hire Vlad the Impaler as his liberal “Lifestyles” editor.
Then , I’d advise you to buy a hundred cases of Mad Dog 20/20 and start drinking and stay drunk because the coming months have all the makings of quite a ride into self destruction. Tuck a gun under your pillow because when you come to , you might not like the aftermath of what has to be the dumbest and quickest self-destruction of a major world power in all history.
Any Republican who still thinks their party is a party for small government is either so dumb as to be hilarious or so loyal as to be best used as gun fodder.
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...and as for little Billy Kristol claiming that “Clarence Thomas is the most impressive conservative in American life”, well, in as much as “impressive Conservatives in American Life” seem to be as common as Passenger Pigeons, he may indeed be right.
If one wants Kabuki, buy the N.Y. Times but if one wants news and informed opinion, one would be better served by buying the Onion.
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Yes, this is why I support Obama as chemotherapy for the Republican party.
We must make the Republican host sick enough so that the neocon cancer is killed. Only then can we revive the Republican corpus.
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McCain is headed to Israel to bow to his master.
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The nation’s schizophrenics can now rejoice at the possibility of seeing Gore on one side of the ballot and Lieberman on the other.
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“Even if Thomas has been rather unassuming on the bench, echoing Scalia when he speaks at all...”
Nonsense. Thomas is his own man and doesn’t simply echo Scalia, although he usually sides with him.
Be that as it may, the idea of putting Thomas on a ticket is ludicrous, which explains perfectly why it came out of Bill Kristol’s mouth. Only a pseudoconservative like Kristol would dream of taking one of the preeminent jurists ever to sit on the bench and turn him into a common whore.
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Richard,
At one point I thought McCain might pick Huckabee for VP, but when I got to thinking about it wondered if McCain might pick Lieberman instead. I thought at the time Huckabee would ensure a strong participation by the evangelicals. I use that term somewhat loosely, as not all evangelicals are dispensationalists or hard core Israel Firsters. Chuck Baldwin comes to mind.
As crazy as it sounds I think this is a distinct possibility. It would accomplish two things. One, it would solidify the dispensationalists and their fellow Israel Firsters solidly behind McCain and it would attract the votes of liberals Jews who still might have a problem with a Republican even if it is a warmonger like McCain. Even more importantly, it would attract a considerable amount of money for the campaign. Remember what Wesley Clark said on that subject awhile back?
Now, for your point about this driving the talk radio base and the GOP apart I am not sure this would necessary be the case. I listen to neocon talk radio. Not as much as I used to, but I discovered years ago what a collection of charlatans these guys really are and I need to preserve the few brain cells I have left. “Three hours a day” for a whole week listening to Hannity would be like sticking your head into a microwave.
I have noted this. Most of these neocon talk show hosts have been trying to gradually move toward McCain after trying to derail him and they all share this common trait. When it comes to Lieberman, all of them are bootlickers in either talking about him or to him. Hannity is by far the worst. True, they do have “issues” with McCain over immigration and McCain-Feingold. In the case of the former this is base driven as only Michael Savage used to speak about it negatively. The others were either open borders or ignored it altogether until callers started burning up phone lines wanting to talk about it. These hosts are like the Roman senator chasing the mob shouting for them to stop for he is their leader. They know if they ignore this issue it is at risk of their following leaving them. In the case of the latter it is driven by the hosts. These two issues and a few minor ones like perhaps McCain’s personality are the cause of the pulling apart you refer to. Bringing Lieberman on could actually help bridge this as from listening to the moronic fans who call in they all love “good old Joe” and would love to have him in the GOP.
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Clarence Thomas is the most philosophically consistent conservative Supreme Court Justice on the bench. He is the one who often changes Scalia’s mind on constitutional matters and has been instrumental in keeping the court relatively sane over the past few years. Mr. Spencer seems to share the media prejudice that Thomas is some kind of afirmative action candidate, in part, no doubt, because Scalia can’t keep his mouth shut outside the court room and publishes his (overrated) dissents. Scalia voted to prohibit medicinal marijuana in CA based on an otherwise very liberal interpretation of the Commerce Clause; Thomas, consistent with the Constitution, argued the Feds had no business in the matter. Scalia’s vaunted conservatism is more of a strong executive neoconservatism. Thomas is the only Justice that shares something like Ron Paul’s vision of the Constitution. For that reason and others (he’s a gentleman and a retiring intellectual) he will never be a VP. Come on.
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Why all this VP speculation? Is any conservative going to vote for Senator McCain?
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More likely…
McCain-Pence
McCain-Keyes
[ endiana.com ]
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<<Is any conservative going to vote for Senator McCain?>>
Of course not.
None of us support democracy.
We don’t vote.
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Then again a McCain-Clinton ticket seems possible. In her latest rantings Hippobottumus seems to be vying for the job if Obama gets the nod from the Democratic wing of the Party.
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I agree with Ryan. The Christian Zionists and conservative talk-radio personalities will uniformly praise McCain for selecting Joe Lieberman (Ind., Tel Aviv) as his vice-presidential nominee. Having a warmonger and a Likudnik in the White House will make war with Iran inevitable
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If Bill Clinton can beat George Bush Sr. (and Bob Dole), Obama or Hillary shouldn’t have any problem with John (100-years- war, “there will be more wars”, “bomb-bomb Iran") McCain. The war wagon McCain has hitched himself to has a dead horse. Also, the MSM will be pitching for the “history-making” Democratic nominee even more-so than usual. Throw in the economy, the fact that McCain is a very dry speaker, can’t seem to control his temper, even while he is accused of having a bad temper and the rout is on. Obama would be more adept at deflecting what little ammunition McCain has in his arsenal, but Hillary could beat him too. So who will run as VP? It doesn’t matter - my guess would be Lieberman, but if Dan Quayle and Jack Kemp are available, they could do just as well.
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Yes why fool around with a Vichy US
Government any longer. McCain-Lieberman would
represent a more complete surrender.
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It’s a real pity for Kristol that “Bibl” Netanyahu wasn’t born in the US. If he were the neocons could simply work to get him elected and cut out the middleman altogether.
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Let’s see. A Likud “national unity” party and a ticket of Monster Lady and “Pops” McCain with “Tail Gunner” Joe Lieberman as Secretary of State and Bill Kristol as National Security Adviser. Yup. That should pass muster. As for the Republican Party: “Stick a Fork in It.”
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<<None of us support democracy.
We don’t vote. >>
Our past sparring aside, Mr. Capp and I fully agree on this one.
The choice of the VP is about as important as to who will win on American Idol.
The inertia of this country is in one unchangeable direction now. I only hope that the military dictatorship that follows will look benevolently upon us Christians as we work toward installing the monarch(s).
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The last thing we need is Clarence Thomas as VP - he is much more valuable to this country right where he is, and will hopefully serve for many more years.
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How about McCain Spitzer,two crazed adulterers would make a great Republican ticket.
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