Further signs that I may get my wish—a liberal GOP ticket that no one can pretend is conservative

(Note: But see Dan R.’s very different scenario, below, and my reply.)

Here is stunning news reported by Ralph Z. Hallow in today’s Washington Times:

Officials with John McCain’s campaign made a series of conference calls Monday and Tuesday with supporters nationwide to say that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman may be named as the Arizona senator’s vice presidential running mate, immediately sparking a frenzied effort by some state Republican officials to come up with a strategy to head off such a move, The Washington Times has learned.

One of the concerned state GOP officials told The Washington Times that he talked with two “high-level” campaign officials who said “Lieberman is a very real possibility.”…

Now some might say that the McCain campaign is merely floating Lieberman to gauge GOP response. The problem with that theory is that the McCain campaign already floated Lieberman last week, and got lots of response last week and on the weekend from various “conservatives” (discussed at length by me here) indicating that they wouldn’t be happy with a Lieberman pick but wouldn’t jump ship over it either. So there was no need for McCain supporters to be told on Monday and Tuesday that Lieberman may be the selection, unless he really is—or is very close to being—the selection.

Hallow continues:

Concerned state GOP officials on Tuesday discussed by telephone and e-mail whether to organize delegates to reject Mr. Lieberman if his name comes up for a floor vote for the vice presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention—if Mr. McCain actually does name him, either before or at the beginning of the Sept. 1-4 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

But heading off a Lieberman pick beforehand would avoid having to embarrass the GOP nominee by publicly rejecting his judgment on the choice for vice president at a convention watched on television by much of the nation.

Whether Mr. Lieberman would transform the McCain campaign into a bipartisan winner or a disaster is open to debate.

—end of initial entry—

A reader suggests that all the Lieberman talk by the McCain camp is really a set-up for a Romney pick. My head is spinning.

Dan R. writes:

I just read the Washington Times piece by Ralph Z. Hallow, but came away more impressed by some of the readers’ comments. McCain is a politician, which is another way of saying he’s a liar. Already during this campaign he’s lied about immigration, and he gave the pro forma answer on abortion at Saddleback. He is not serious about abortion and through this VP process is trying to communicate that to the soccer moms and such. In the end he will probably pick Romney, as one commenter said, which will satisfy the “conservative base,” that same base which will be unconcerned about McCain’s seriousness on abortion, satisfied instead with lip-service. By the way, just read (also in Wash Times) that Giuliani is going to be the keynoter at the Convention. In the end, your conclusion holds: the Republican Party is no longer (if it ever was) a conservative party.

LA replies:

If Romney ends up being the pick, let’s be clear that this would not be the good news for conservatives that they imagine it would be. As McCain’s running mate, Romney would no longer be the reliable opportunist (as I first described him in early 2007) who as a presidential candidate pledged himself to the conservative cause. He would be the reliable opportunist who has pledged himself to John McCain—with everything that that implies.

I still believe that at the beginning of his presidential quest, Romney, seeing the great desire of conservatives for a conservative standard bearer, sincerely offered himself as that man, and that if the conservatives had accepted and embraced him in that role, he would have honorably fulfilled it. But they did not embrace him (or they embraced him too late and too little), and McCain won. So if Romney now ends up on the McCain ticket, it will be as McCain’s man, not as the conservatives’ man.

LA continues:

I repeat that on the pure merits of the choice, it seems extremely unlikely to me that McCain would pick a liberal, pro-partial-birth abortion Democrat as his running mate. Indeed, Lieberman’s ADA rating is virtually the same as Obama’s. I’ve kept talking up the possibility of a Lieberman pick only because, according to the news media, the McCain camp itself keeps indicating that McCain wants him.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 20, 2008 03:05 PM | Send