{"id":14389,"date":"2008-01-28T14:30:33","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T19:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14389.html"},"modified":"2008-01-28T14:30:33","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T19:30:33","slug":"romney-takes-aim-at-mccains-kerry-flirtation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/romney-takes-aim-at-mccains-kerry-flirtation\/","title":{"rendered":"Romney takes aim at McCain’s Kerry flirtation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been urging the Romney campaign to pick up on this for a while, and I’m delighted they’re taking the hint, first with a fun new video<\/a>, and now on the campaign stump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican Mitt Romney took aim at John McCain Monday over reports he once considered signing on to John Kerry’s presidential ticket, the latest effort by the Massachusetts Republican to paint his chief rival as an inconsistent and unpredictable conservative.<\/p>\n

“I do recall a story that he was thinking about being John Kerry’s running mate — he gave that some thought,” Romney said at an early-morning rally in West Palm Beach. “Had someone asked me that question, there would not have been a nanosecond of thought about it — It would’ve been an immediate laugh. And of course, if someone asked him if he would consider me as a running mate, he would have also laughed immediately.”<\/p>\n

“So, we are different,” Romney continued. “I’m conservative.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be sure, the sincerity of Romney’s conservatism is certainly open to debate, but on the substantive claim — McCain was open to joining the Democratic ticket in 2004, and running against Bush-Cheney — Romney is quite right. I’ve long wondered why this hasn’t been a bigger campaign issue; it seems like the kind of thing rank-and-file Republicans wouldn’t like at all.
\n
\nThis began in earnest in April, when The Hill caused a stir with a report<\/a> that John McCain, in 2001, was close to switching parties, and members of his team had actually initiated discussions about the Arizona senator becoming a Dem.<\/p>\n

Soon after, MyDD’s Jonathan Singer chatted with John Kerry<\/a> and learned a similarly fascinating and related tidbit of news.<\/p>\n

Singer: There’s a story in The Hill, I think on Tuesday, by Bob Cusack on the front page of the paper talking about how John McCain’s people — John Weaver — had approached Tom Daschle and a New York Congressman, I don’t remember his name, about switching parties. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what your discussions were with him in 2004, how far it went, who approached whom… if there was any “there” there.<\/p>\n

Kerry: I don’t know all the details of it. I know that Tom, from a conversation with him, was in conversation with a number of Republicans back then. It doesn’t surprise me completely because his people similarly approached me to engage in a discussion about his potentially being on the ticket as Vice President. So his people were active — let’s put it that way.<\/p>\n

Singer: Okay. And just to confirm, you said it, but this is something they approached you rather than…<\/p>\n

Kerry: Absolutely correct. John Weaver of his shop… [JK answers phone]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCain’s willingness to consider joining the Democratic ticket is beyond dispute. In 2004, he acknowledged on national television that he’d consider<\/a> the offer, should Kerry extend it. Given this, even if someone were to discount Kerry’s version of events, McCain’s own words should give the GOP base pause.<\/p>\n

But if Kerry’s take is taken seriously, and Romney clearly hopes it is, McCain may have to respond to the story.<\/p>\n

As Singer noted at the time, “For Republicans, I would imagine that reports that he approached the Democrats about leaving the Senate GOP caucus in 2001 represent a borderline unpardonable offense. But it seems that reaching out to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to talk about running on that party’s ticket would be tantamount to the highest form of political treason to Republicans.”<\/p>\n

It seems like a potential problem for McCain, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been urging the Romney campaign to pick up on this for a while, and I’m delighted they’re taking the hint, first with a fun new video, and now on the campaign stump. Republican Mitt Romney took aim at John McCain Monday over reports he once considered signing on to John Kerry’s presidential ticket, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}