It Just Keeps Getting Worse
The Corner - Rush vs Jonah, by Mark Steyn
Re this dispute, I am the opposite of James Baker on the Balkans: I feel I have both dogs in this fight. I assumed initially that Jonah’s McCain-needs-a-Dem-veep column was a deeply Swiftian satire: A Democrat running mate! What better way for McCain to shore up his wobbling base (the media)?
But by the end it seemed as if Jonah meant it. The problem with the likely names is that they don’t do the job he envisages. Sam Nunn and Joe Lieberman shore McCain up on the one issue he doesn’t need shoring up on: The war. On everything else, they remain Democrats, so on domestic policy they drag the ticket further to the left, which doesn’t energize Republicans. And they don’t pull any Democrats either. The modern Democratic party is like Islam: You’re either a believer or an apostate. Lieberman is an apostate. So the Demo-media narrative would not be national unity, coalition of all the talents, end to bipartisan bickering, etc, but two elderly embittered white male warmongers, one of whom is a traitor to his party, and the other of whom is a traitor to Arianna Huffington’s dinner parties.
If McCain wants to neutralize the novelty value of the Obama candidacy, he can do it with a Jindal or a Palin more easily than a Lieberman.
On the other hand, if he wanted to do the grand bipartisan gesture Jonah’s arguing for, he’d be better to go all the way and put Hillary on the ticket. I tremble even to make that suggestion because McCain’s such a contrarian old coot he’s just nutty enough to do it.
Either way - McCain/Lieberman, McCain/Clinton, McCain/Graham, McCain/Bloomberg, McCain/Sharpton - this November will be a big test of the Nixon thesis that you can’t win with just the conservatives but you can’t win without the conservatives. Knowing McCain, my best guess is the veep will be no-one we dig.
Ohhhhhhh lord.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Wow, Sam Nunn. I so wanted to vote for him for President but he kept screwing up his timing. Now being possible Obama Veep? I’d be conflicted, very conflicted. I’d almost have to vote Obama if he was on the ticket. Nunn is damn near family, he’s the nephew of Carl Vinson (of CVN Carl Vinson fame) and is also related in some way to Walter George (of Walter George fame). Uncle Bill was the ward-heeler for that part of Georiga forever, made sure they both understood that the duties of the US Government were National Defense, Roads and yes, yes, the peanut alotment.
Hell, why not I may take a flyer.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Jaw droppingly off topic, but Ima now recall muh Kinsman Carl Vinson…. aka GAWD. The Vinson Rule:
In this role, Vinson adopted a committee rule that came to be known as the “Vinson rule.” Accordingly, each year junior members of the committee could ask only one question per year of service on the committee.
Just another example of the Natural Superiority of Southern Politicians. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96982996
May 26th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Been reading the Caro LBJ biography, lots about Carl Vinson (rather less about brother Fred). Lots of Walter George, and even more Richard Russell. Can’t say I’m all that keen on Strom Thurmond, though.
May 26th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Thurmond is/was a huge embarrasement.
Richard Russell of course is well, he’s Richard Russell. Damn, Georgia has always had ‘em. Florida meanwhile has had 1 (one) (won) semi-powerful Senator. Spessard Holland. We deserve and have deserved better.
May 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I love Sam Nunn, but I’d think less of him if he associated himself with Obama. It would seem to me like an out-of-character power grab.
As for the McCain veepstakes, I am hoping this weekend’s shindig for veep hopefuls is an indication all the invitees are also-rans being given a consolation cheeseburger.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Half, I think in this current climate, should you switch your vote to Obama because of his Veep pick, you’d be promptly accused of encouraging his assassination.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Sam Nunn could be a Veep for McCain, though. Not a smart choice politically, but a good ticket objectively.
May 26th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Yes it would seem very out of character for Nunn, but his time is running out. He’s made me thump thump thump a few times with his amazingly bad timing, maybe he gets lucky?
ninme, yes. I’ll lay low.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:22 am
George Smathers turned down the opportunity to be LBJ’s Senate Whip. He might have become powerful in time. The LBJ book has a photograph of the southern senators gathered for a meeting in 1957. LBJ wasn’t there of course, but neither was a liberal whose support they could count on without him having to do anything as vulgar as be seen with them - William Fulbright (or “Halfbright” as LBJ called him).
May 27th, 2008 at 3:28 am
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s better when the Presidential race is mind-numbingly boring. Then we can all ignore it until the last couple o’ weeks.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:37 am
I’ve got to admit my stamina’s not what it used to be either.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
LOL Smathers. He had the mark of Bobby Baker upon him. Still got the University of Florida Law School named after him.
heh…..
He was quite the male thespian I here.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Bobby Baker still alive one wonders?
May 29th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
According to Wiki is still among us sinners.
Also according to the Wiki is this…. sounds like an acid-edit to me but who knows?
Baker’s secretary, Nancy Carole Tyler, shared an apartment with Mary Jo Kopechne, an aid to Senator George Smathers and later to Senator Robert Kennedy. Tyler was killed in a plane crash in 1965. Kopechne was killed in 1969, in an accident on Chappaquiddick Island in a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy. Noting these women’s suspicious and untimely deaths, some conspirists have used this link to connect the Bobby Baker scandal to the John F. Kennedy assassination