Will McCain Pick Lieberman For His Veep?



"You remind me of my Veep .." (image via yesterdayssalad)

If we were to bet on who presumptive Republican nominee McCain might pick as the winner of his Veepstakes, it would be Mitt Romney. Romney is a former Governor -- a big plus to a Senator -- with matinee idol good looks and, best of all, actual business experience (with a fat checkbook to help a trailing campaign). The Bushies, who have a legacy-stake in this election, fancy "Mittens." And the dark Karl Rove -- who has as much of a Bush legacy stake in this as the President -- loves Romney. And as deftly as Senator Clinton navigated the Reagan Democrat vote in Pennsylvania, Romney, a former moderate New England Governor, amazingly maneuvered himself into the hearts and minds of die-hard conservatives. Romney would solidify McCain's "base problem."

ThePolitico's Jonatahn Martin, however, makes the case for McCain's going after the middle with Connecticut Independent-Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman. Senator Lieberman has, of late, been the McCain point-man/agitator on Obama's bona fides on the state of Israel (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment):

"I wrote a story in March noting just how ubiquitous Joe Lieberman had become in McCainworld. If anything, he's become even more prominent in the campaign since, holding conference calls to carry the campaign message and appearing at his friend's side all over the country, including last Thursday at a nationally-televised town hall meeting in New York.

"It remains a longshot, but Lieberman's name has been popping up as a veep prospect. It almost has a Cheney-esque quality to it: you look around and then pick the guy who has been right in front of you all along. And people who know McCain say that if he were liberated to pick whoever he wanted, politics aside, he'd love to tap his pal Joe.

"The problem, of course, is that there would be blowback.

"'The political consensus is that McCain couldn't get away with either, and he knows it,' wrote Bob Novak in his Saturday column about McCain's inclination to look at both Lieberman and the pro-choice Tom Ridge."

Lieberman would be a bold pick because despite his fidelity to the Bushies on the Iraq War -- where he's been a staunch supporter of those efforts -- Lieberman has voted with the Democrats on economic and social issues over 90 percent of the time. More here.