McCain renews speculation about Lieberman as running mate

January 17, 2008

Over the weekend, Bob Novak cited close advisors of John McCain, concluding “there is no possibility that Independent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman would be McCain’s vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket.”

But McCain apparently wants to keep the speculation brewing anyway.

There’s been plenty of speculation since self-described Democratic-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman started stumping for Sen. John McCain in December that Al Gore’s 2000 running mate might reprise that role for his Republican friend.

McCain did little to dissuade Washington Wire of that notion. The Arizona senator was speaking Wednesday evening at town hall-style meeting at T-Bones Steakhouse and Saloon in Lake Wylie, S.C. (Atmosphere: various taxidermied critters on the wall, including a skunk.)

“He’d be a great partner in any endeavor, including joining America together,” McCain said in response to a question on the Lieberman factor. “Let’s reach across the aisle, let’s work together for America. That’s what Joe Lieberman is all about.”

I’d argue that Joe Lieberman is “all about” something different altogether, but let’s put that aside for the time being.

McCain’s coy rhetoric notwithstanding, I still think this is terribly far-fetched.

Several relatively high-profile conservatives were talking up this pairing a few months ago, including the Weekly Standard’s William Kristol and National Review’s Peter Wehner, but that doesn’t mean it’s likely.

The principal obstacle right now between John McCain and the Republican nomination is that he’s not doing very well with actual Republicans. The way to address this problem, at least from his perspective, probably isn’t to talk openly about adding a self-identified “Independent Democrat” to the GOP ticket.

As humiliating as Lieberman is on matters of foreign policy and national security, he’s also fairly liberal on most domestic policy matters, including abortion and gay rights. Is the Republican Party so devoid of leaders that can win a national election that it has to look beyond the GOP for running mates? I really doubt the party’s rank and file think so.

Stay tuned.

Then perhaps Hils or Obama can pick Lamont as their running mate b/c that strategy worked so well for the Dems the last time around!

  • Exhibit no. 1 for why McCain is so loathed by blueblood Republicans.

    They simply cannot tolerate anyone who is willing to do what is best for the country. If there’s a conflict between doing what is best for the U.S. and the pushing forward the Republican agenda, they’d do the latter 10 out of 10 times. They simply do not care about this nation as a whole; they’re only concerned with helping the top 10% of their party and playing the rest of them like a well-tuned guitar w/ social issues in order to hide the money tree they’re giving away to the 10 percent.

    As for the rest of us, they’d just assume we go to hell.

    Right back at ’em.

    [note-do not take this as my endorsing McCain’s supposed plan were it to come to fruition. This would be a disaster of epic proportions; namely, JL would go scorched earth on everyone who even winked at Ned Lamont. He got picked on in school and now has to vest himself with power to make up for the fact that he’s just a little shit of a “man.”]

  • I love it.

    McCain is the only one of them I worry about, and he thinks Al Gore’s old running mate would be a good match for him?

    Jezus the wingnuts will hate him even more now.

  • The reality is that Lieberman by endorsing McCain can no longer be accepted as an trusted ally of the Democratic party. Unfortunately the Democratic majority in the Senate has delivered almost nothing for its constituents and it clear that even less will be done until the next presidential election. The reality is that if we are going to repair the damage to this country we must have party discipline. That is why .

  • The reality is that Lieberman by endorsing McCain can no longer be accepted as an trusted ally of the Democratic party. Unfortunately the Democratic majority in the Senate has delivered almost nothing for its constituents and it clear that even less will be done until the next presidential election. The reality is that if we are going to repair the damage to this country we must have party discipline. That is why It is time to Kill Fredo.

  • McCain and Lieberman are the very picture of desperation…

    I think of them now as…the Hug and The Kiss…

  • NOBODY likes Lieberman! Nobody!

    Dems despise him. Republican social conservatives loathe him. Christianists won’t like him on the ticket because he’s Jewish. He’s not a fiscal conservative. But he is a foreign policy hawk, with some tilt toward Israel; some Republicans might like that.

    I’m more worried about losing to McCain in November than to any other Republican candidate. Lieberman would only weaken their ticket, as he weakened ours in 2000. So if McCain wins the nomination, I hope that this match works out.

    Joementum!

  • The Republicans are trying as hard as they can to lose in their primaries and lose the November election. To the Republican presidential hopefuls: thanks you all — your country will benefit from all your work to ensure a Republican will no longer live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

  • “Some tilt towards Israel”?! Give us a break, Joseph Lieberman is a de facto Israeli agent. Slightly to the right of the LIkud Party stalwarts, Lieberman is the darling of the military/industrial complex, the Israel lobby and the energy lobby; together, these three special interest groups constitute the “War Lobby”.

    Lieberman is a professional war monger and like most war mongers he never put on a uniform or put his own hide on the line, it’s always somebody else who must go in and fight for the values that Lieberman holds so dear.

    If McCain chooses this poor excuse for an American as his running mate, then McCain’s patriotism and commitment to America’s best interests is certainly questionable.

  • Joe Leiberman is a trator to the United States of America who has time and again voted the interests of his real nationality at the expense of the United States.
    But make no mistake. He is NOT a warmonger. He would never send American troops into harms way unless he felt it was in the best interests of his country, Isreal.
    And he is not a poor excuse for an American. He is a sterling example of all that is wise and selfserving in an Isreali.

  • 8. On January 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm, OkieFromMuskogee said:
    NOBODY likes Lieberman! Nobody!

    I hate his guts, but there was a report from New Hampshire (Ezra Klein, I think) that Republicans were saying that Lieberman’s support reassured them about McCain. That’s how far through the looking-glass we’ve fallen.

    From a purely theatrical angle, this is whole thing is interesting: Lieberman makes his national reputation by scolding Bill Clinton on the floor of the Senate. A few years later, Clinton gets even when Lieberman has to grovel to get Bill Clinton to save his political career in CT. Now Lieberman takes his revenge for needing Bill Clinton to rescue him by campaigning for McCain.

    Doesn’t speak well for any of the parties involved, though.

  • > self-described Democratic-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman

    Is there some way we can keep him from saying he’s a Democrat? Copyright infringement, or something?

  • If this is true McCainiac would need two extra Secret Service agents to keep the other Smirking Turd of DC from pushing him down the stairs.

    I don’t get why people need to make arses of themselves over his religion. The guy’s a back stabbing S-O-B. He’d be a back stabbing S-O-B if he were a Methodist, a Buddhist or a Wiccan. The only good thing about Bush stealing the presidency is it kept JoeLIEberman out of the White House. I’m not sure Al would have survived that.

  • Ugh.

    Now I’ll have nightmares of a McCain-Lieberman Independent Presidential bid gobbling up all the mis-informed voters…

    Are we still looking to a four-way, even with Unity08 out of business?

  • A McCain-Lieberman ticket can only be bested by an Obama-Hagel ticket. What could be better! A Rep-Dem ticket that’s gung-ho for war vs. a forward-looking Dem-Rep team that will take America in a new and long-overdue foreign policy direction.

  • Answer Orange, wrote, “I don’t get why people need to make arses of themselves over his religion. The guy’s a back stabbing S-O-B. He’d be a back stabbing S-O-B if he were a Methodist, a Buddhist or a Wiccan.”

    Perhaps, but the Methodists, Buddhists and Wiccans are not trying to colonize their ancient homelands, after a two-thousand-year hiatus, with American taxpayer support, but the Jewish Diaspora is doing just that.

    Lieberman’s religion is a legitimate concern because, as an Orthodox Jew and a fervent Zionist, the possibility of conflicts of interest exist.

    The national interests of the USA and those of the Jewish State in Palestine cannot possibly be absolutely congruent. What’s good for Israel is not always good for the USA, but no US politician would dare to agree. Lieberman has deluded himself into believing that Israel’s best interests are identical to America’s best interests.

    In 1776, colonial Americans went to war over “taxation without representation”, today, the Israelis enjoy US representation without being subject to US taxation, yet few Americans seem to care about that peculiar arrangement. Any pro-Israel Resolution in the US Congress usually passes unanimously. The Israelis receive American taxpayer-generated funding on a regular basis, but they don’t contribute a single shekel to the US Treasury. All take, no give.

    Kyle-Lieberman is a prime example of how these conflicts of national interest are played out in the US Senate. Apparently, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars aren’t enough for the Israelis, there’s more heavy lifting to be done, this time in Iran, and Uncle Sam is expected to do the grunt work… again.

    It’s time to divest, disassociate and disengage the USA from apartheid Israel.

  • Joe Lieberman would be a great candidate to unite the country and “reach across the aisle” like Larry Craig would be a great choice for airport washroom attendant. The repackaging of John McCain as a moderate who could unite a divided America goes on apace, despite the fact that John McCain has never shown any inclination to be anything other than the President of Republican America. Brokered nomination, here we come!!

  • McCain is being nice to his colleague, the Senator from Jerusalem, not because the Senate is a courtly, courteous body of gentlemen who respect each other. It’s the money. By being coy about Lieberman, McCain gets access to all those deep pockets who are more loyal to Israel than the US. It’s no secret that McCain needs money, and fast.

    There is no one in the Senate who serves Israel’s interests better than Lieberman, and by playing footsy with him McCain sends the right signals to many very wealthy power bases in this country. McCain has to know that putting Lieberman on the ticket with him, should he by some miracle get the nomination, will split the Rethugs big time, and unite the progressive wing of the Dems.

    Lieberman, for his part, has said that he’s not interested in being on a national ticket again. If the Dems take a lot of Senate seats in November he’ll be toast. I would guess he’ll leave the Senate and become more openly what he is now: a full-time lobbyist for the Likud interests in Israel.

  • Not sure who would be best running mate for McCain but I do know who would be the best running mate for Hill…General Barry McCaffrey.

  • Look beyond McCain/Lieberman to……Romney gets the nomination, then it’s ….an Independent ticket, but this time…. Lieberman/McCain.
    These two will stick together. Watch and see

  • Assuming his daughter Noelle’s substance abuse is under control, I suspect it’ll be the former two-term Florida governor Jeb Bush, for the following reasons: a young (55), big-state, conservative, Spanish-speaking, Catholic, establishment Republican.

  • I completely agree with these comments! This is a prime example of the Zionist attempt to gain control of our government. There will NOT be a black man, a jew, or a woman in the highest office. Once I heard this about liberman, I choked! Now, I will change my assesment of McCain, and may switch, but who? There are no real choices!

  • Yes. As you know we Republicans who make up the “top ten percent” didn’t work hard for the money we have. Furthermore, there is definitely no reason why we should be able to keep more than 60% of what we EARN. You people act like people who make over two or three or four or five hundred thousand dollars a year don’t pay enough taxes? I pay over 40% of my money to the government every year. I’d like to be able to at least keep it at that level so I can help my children and grand children get a good start in life, rather than pay for social programs for people who don’t deserve it. I know these are crazy ideas to you folks. I employ about 100 people and feel a responsibility to every last one of their families. I compensate them as well as I can and try to provide a great retirement plan and affordable health care. I just get sick of hearing that I am (people in my situation) EVIL because I’m a conservative Republican from liberals. Why? I take care of my family and contribute to society and as many charitble organizations as I can. I don’t force my beliefs on others or care/judge other people by sexual orientation, abortion issue, etc. As far as I’m concerned other people can do what they want, think what they want…just don’t ask me to pay for it above and beyond the rate at which I get taxed already. The whole socialist redistribution of wealth is rediculous. What is my incentive to try and better my company and the amount of money we make if the government just plans on keeping/taking more and more of it?

    OK….now you can go ahead and start your name calling. I really don’t care. Like I said. I’ve done things the right way my whole life and will continue to take care of my family and contribute to my community.

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