Worst…ticket idea…ever

January 9, 2007

Newsweek’s Tom Curry speculates about an idea for a presidential ticket that’s almost too scary for words.

Will McCain, now a leading contender for the 2008 GOP nomination, borrow Kerry’s idea and offer the vice presidency to Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut’s self-styled “independent Democrat”?

The McCain-Lieberman duo showed a warm camaraderie Friday during their joint appearance at the American Enterprise Institute, an event where they both called for a substantial increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq in order to impose order, stop ethnic cleansing, and give the Maliki government a chance to succeed.

Lieberman lavished praise on his Arizona ally…. There’s an affinity of personnel, as well as of ideology, between the Arizona Republican and the Connecticut Democrat: McCain’s spokesman in 2004, Marshall Wittmann, now works as Lieberman’s spokesman.

The quote of the piece clearly goes to Terry Lierman, chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party, who said, “Does McCain need Lieberman to attract Republican votes?”

That’s funny, but the idea of a McCain-Lieberman ticket isn’t. Indeed, in 2008, exactly which part of the American electorate will be clamoring for an all-hawk, all-the-time ticket?

The next media pundit and/or reporter to call Lieberman a “Connecticut Democrat” should be kicked square in the nutmegs.

His party rejected him. Accept it. Get over it. Move along.

  • Why is everything these days a trilogy? Do we really need to have “Dumb and Dumber 3?”

  • Unholy Moses:

    CQ will list Lieberman as an “Independent Democrat” — is that better for you? McCain/Lieberman would certainly be better than any alternative from your party.

  • How is the Religious Reich going to pick when their consevative choices are Jewish, Mormon and Heathen? Diversity can be confusing.

  • McCain-Lieberman? Will they be groping each other and locked in a long wet tongue-kiss? That’s hot.

    Look, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Al Gore will be the next president. The only question remaining is whether his VP will be Hillary Clinton or Howard Dean. My money’s on Dean. Gore-Dean ’08. That’s from A to B.

  • Hey!! I mentioned a McCain-Lieberman ticket yesterday! I demand credit for this ridiculous idea!

  • Can we get George Soros to pay John Cleese to loudly declare on the Capitol steps in front of a MSM gaggle that Sen. Joe Leiberman is: an “ex-Democrat”!“

  • To answer Steve’s initial question: in 2008, exactly which part of the American electorate will be clamoring for an all-hawk, all-the-time ticket?

    If there’s another 9/11 attack (or worse), I would think a large part of the American electorate would.

  • That ticket will last up until Lieberman insists that he’s not running to be Vice President so much as Co-President. His ego will permit nothing less. McCain’s ego won’t permit it at all.

    It’s kind of a shame, too. Voting against both of these guys in one shot would be a very pleasurable vote.

  • CQ will list Lieberman as an “Independent Democrat” — is that better for you?

    No, because he’s not an Independent Democrat — he’s a Republican who doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to declare himself as such.

    McCain/Lieberman would certainly be better than any alternative from your party.

    Well, considering that an OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans disagree with their positions on a number of issues, I’d have to say you’re just yanking that assertion out of your ass.*

    (*Exception made for Hillary, who draws the ire of people across a wide swath of the political spectrum for too many reasons to list here.)

  • slip kid no more:

    That doesn’t sounds very “inclusive” of you. As an interesting side note, on November 15, 2006, John Orman (one-time Lieberman challenger) changed his party registration from Democratic to CFL and, as the only member of said party, elected himself the new chairman of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party.

    Some of the new rules passed by the new party chairman include:

    1.If you run under Connecticut for Lieberman, you must actually join our party.

    2. The party will nominate people for office who have the last name of Lieberman and/or who are critics and opponents of Senator Lieberman.

    3. If any CFL candidate loses our party’s nomination in a primary, that candidate must bolt our party, form a new party and work to defeat our party’s endorsed candidate.

    4. We in the CFL intend to run the same candidate for three different jobs at the same time, i.e. House, Senate and Governor.

    On January 3, 2007, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz recognized Orman’s takeover of the party. According to Ted Bromely, a state elections attorney who works for her office, “If someone wanted to challenge it, they’d have to go to court.”

  • Unholy Moses:

    Well, of course, that is just my opinion of “better”, although I do want to point out some “facts” too:

    The first Independent Democrat in the United States House of Representatives was Zadok Casey in the mid-1800s. Casey was a Jacksonian Democrat before becoming an Independent. In the Senate,
    Strom Thurmond was elected to the Senate in 1954 and served as an Independent Democrat for the 84th Congress until his resignation on April 4, 1956. In November of that year he was elected as a Democrat to fill the vacancy created by his resignation. Harry F. Byrd, Jr., a senator from Virginia, left the Democratic Party in 1970. He continued to caucus with the Democrats and referred to himself as an Independent Democrat as well.

    As far as I can tell, there were “Independent Democrats” in Congress between 1873 and 1887 (there were also “Independent Republicans” and even “Liberal Republicans” during that time period, so don’t get your panties in a bunch). Lieberman is certainly not the first, and hopefully not the last.

  • slip kid #7 – Great idea. For a few extra bucks maybe we could get him to slam Holy Joe’s head on the steps while shouting, “Wake up, polly!!” 😉

    Sorry, that was mean. I should be eaten by a python for even thinking it. 😉 😉

  • Thomas–
    Um … I never denied the existence of “Indpendent Democrats.” I denied that Lieberman has any business calling himself such.

    There’s something wrong with you. Seriously …

  • Voting against both of these guys in one shot would be a very pleasurable vote.

    With you on voting against them; just hoping you’ll wait until near the end of the day to do it — I hate messy polling booths. 🙂

  • McLie. It’s indicative of the prepackaged bullshit they would deliver on their quest to total global war. I would enjoy this ticket heartily because it would assuredly be a loser.

  • slip kid no more:

    I’ve never watched that, sorry. So, for the record, you don’t want to get George Soros to pay John Cleese to loudly declare on the Capitol steps in front of a MSM gaggle that Sen. Joe Leiberman is: an “ex-Democrat”!“?

    Unholy Moses:

    Lieberman has just as much business calling himself an “Independant Democrat” as any other “Independant Democrat” through our history. Sorry you think pointing out that fact equates to something being “wrong” with me.

  • Homer, I want some the credit for that bad idea. Last Friday I wrote,

    Anyone want to bet that McCain and Lieberman will run on a unification ticket in 2008?

    As I was searching the site for that comment I found out that many others had been there before us. For example, Openroadster wrote way back in December of 2006,

    And with the way the war and public approval of it is going, they could tear apart a McCain-Lieberman ticket (which is whom I predict will be the Republican nominees)

    But he wasn’t the first to raise the possiblity of this ticket in November of 2006 Tom Cleaver wrote,

    McCain/Lieberman 2008 – I predict it.

    But even he was not the first. In August of last year Koreyel speculated,

    Maybe he and McCain can run as co-presidents and unite the country (gentile and jew) to stay the course in Iraq!

    John and Joe in 2008.

    Let’s see can anyone find a reference prior to that? Who wants to take credit for the first to be on record here at the Carpetbagger Report for this suggesting this ticket made in hell?

  • This seems an impossibility, but so have a lot of things.

    Can we assume that Joe would have to change party affiliations to get on that ticket. Then the Dems would no longer control Congress.

    Hopefully this is just blogoshere chatter.

  • Given how hard Lieberman worked to lose a VP election before, please please please let him help McCain lose this time.

  • I think they’ll call it the “Let us get the *rest* of your kids killed” ticket.

    Though I’m sure that could be more concise. But the theme remains: We are not getting enough American kids killed for nothing, and McCain and Lieberman would have us do *more* of that.

    Fuck them, and fuck the political-media establishment that enables them by having the myopia to think they’re “serious” thinkers. Let’s see someone start sacrificing *their* kids, and then we’ll see how fucking “serious” they are.

  • The punditocracy would have wet dreams over this. And it is possible that a good bit of the American public (i.e. those that Bush appeals to and those that don’t follow politics) would fall for this hooey. So hey, it may be a bad idea to us, but in another way it might make sense.

  • Thomas, Lieberman’s unbounded ego is the cause of endless derision in these parts.

    Rather than George Soros, anybody with a large enough checkbook to afford John Cleese. You see the video to get the “ex” jokes.

  • Thomas, You need to see the video to get the “ex” jokes.

    Ahhh, you are right Allen K. Holy Joe is a six-days-a-week campaigner.

  • The great lilly white Bush ass-kisser and Alfred E. Neuman….sounds like a winning combo to me!

  • Give up slip, he wouldn’t be able to grasp the subtle humor of Monty Python, anyway.

  • i wish thomas would put his name at the top of his comments, so i can simply jump to the next comment……although i am getting a little better at recognizing his foolishness earlier 🙂

  • “Indeed, in 2008, exactly which part of the American electorate will be clamoring for an all-hawk, all-the-time ticket? ”

    As long as its McCain/Lieberman, David Broder, Joe Klein, most of the Washington punditocracy, and the bulk of the MSM.

  • WARNING! THE FOLLOWING IS POSTED BY THOMAS:

    slip kid no more:

    Thanks for the answer, and I will try to view your You Tube video as soon as I can.

  • History lesson, Thomas….

    When Benedict Arnold sold out his Colonial compatriots, he did so with the belief that he would be given adequate rank and power with the British military. They, however, did not trust a man who would betray his fellow Americans for a price. They eventually associated him with Judas, and he died a bitter, powerless, and penniless man—in England.

    Two years from now, the same thing will happen to a McCain/Lieberman ticket. John sold out his moderate friends and connections for the fading glory of the waning Neocon/Theocrat coalition, and Joe rejected the decision of his party’s primary election, knowing in advance that he could garner the lion’s share of the GOP vote in his home state, to go with whatever portion of the Dem vote could be mustered.

    The Neocon lie, as the Trojan Horse, worked once with the Bush/Cheney fabrications on Iraq. But the Neocon lie will not work a second time, on a national scale. Republicans who’ve been burnt by this “duet of deceit” will turn their backs on Election Day. You can thank your little friend in the Oval Office for that one.

    And slip—leave his questions unanswered, if you want. They are but the circular ploy of the spoof, designed to prevent the linear discussion of events so feared by such tail-tucking Reichsters….

  • I am a Connecticut Democrat and I do not consider LIEberman a member of the Democratic Party. He lost that right after the primary results.

  • P.S. Bonnie:

    Did you object to Reid granting Lieberman SENIORITY on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee?

  • ***The great lilly white Bush ass-kisser and Alfred E. Neuman….sounds like a winning combo to me!***
    —————————————————eddiejoe

    Yep—definitely worthy of a Mad Magazine serial. We can call it “Dead Horse Beater vs. Dead Horse Beater….”

  • Thomas,

    Did you object to Reid granting Lieberman SENIORITY on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee?

    I can’t speak for Bonnie, but I objected. I understand the political reality, but I still don’t like it.

  • You formally objected, directly to Ried, Edo? At least you would be one of the few consistent ones.

  • Would not put it past the neocons to allow a terrorist incident. Still would not justify another all-hawk/all-the-time position. As for McCain/Lieberman both are in the minority when it comes to the views foreign and domestic of most Americans. Also, both are suitable only for the Senate as they are far along in the checkout line of life.

  • I’m afraid that, under the tender ministrations of nincompoops such as Thomas and others, The Carpetbagger Report may become typical of other political blogs, blogs which I no longer look at: A lot of time slogging through Thomas-generated shit in order to find what used to be gems of reason and writing in response to CB’s proffered topics.

    Thomas has nothing constructive to offer. “Is too, is not” is sandbox, not discussion. Ignore him or prevent him. I don’t care which.

  • I haven’t spammed the threads with the SAME EXACT POST. While I have commented more than Ed today, it has always been in direct response to the thread or another commenter. See the difference?

  • Ed Stephan – Your comment bears repeating. I too hope the other members of this community take it to heart.

  • As is the case with all spoofs, Thomas has nothing constructive to offer.

    And yes, CB—McCain Does need Lieberman to attract Republican votes. It’s sort of like the dead cat that’s so freaking ugly, you have to tie a chunk of rotten meat around its neck, just to get the damned buzzards to circle it….

  • Who’s left for Rudy? Sam Brokeback?

    [libra]

    LOL. On so many levels. Since Rudy seems to be a ladies’ man & Brownback made an arse of himself over a judge attending a committment ceremony, could we call it The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name ticket?

  • Oh, please, oh, please, I hope they do it … because if they do, I could run with Bozo the Clown (RIP) as my running mate and STILL beat them like a rented mule. Seriously; 350+ electoral votes, easy, and they’d still be finding pieces of their candidacy in the odd gutter in 2028.

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