The Right hates McCain. They can stop him by hiring a new Vice President.

[saltpoint]

McCain still appeals to independents in significant numbers, god only knows why, but there it is. He's racked up some wins in the nomination race against a spectacularly pathetic field of competitors.

Brownback and Tancredo were arguably the most conservative Pukes in their field, neither of whom were able to inspire a critical mass of support to boost their candidacies, and accordingly, both are long gone.

Huckabee is the closest the fundie nutbag demographic is going to get to a viable candidate this time. And there doesn't seem to be wild enthusaism for him on the coast-to-coast poli-meter. He won in Iowa, but on Feb 5th only carried states where there were large camps of hellfire fundies. They hardly knew he even carried some of those pockets of support because they were too busy burning books.

Romney is running these days as a conservative, but everyone knows he's also liberal, except when he's conservative and except when he's in Massachusetts. Mitt is a patchwork slapdash quilt comprised of pieces that weren't done all that well to begin with and strung together look like crap. The fundies aren't exactly hogwild about Mormons and the neo-con crowd just wonders why Mitt is so ... odd.

McCain's delegate total is starting to pile up and he's clearly the frontrunner for their nomination. Newt waited too long, pranced around in front of the mirror, but finally decided against a run. The anti-McCain Right is one extremely discontented group of campers right now. There's some pouting. There's some rage. There's some fuming and snarling and cussing.

It doesn't seem as if there's anything in the nomination race that can impede McCain's ascendancy, no matter how corpse-like he seems to us. "Moderates" seem to still like him.

Unless his campaign is short-circuited by a chest cold. This would be the current Vice President's chest cold. Just a cold, mind you, but wait -- the cable news heads say they took him to the hospital -- routine procedure -- nothing to worry about -- just a ping and a pong on the 24-hour newscycle culture, until the next week or so when some bought-and-paid-for physician/propagandist stands before gathered media to announce the resignation of the Vice President on grounds of health.

We'll hear the "He took the Vice Presidency to new heights" hype from Bill Kristol. George Will can throw down the guantlet to "the Party of surrender to match the departing Vice President in scope, experience and willpower." Lindsey Graham will be throttled with an orgasm and keel over dead.

Within moments, speculation will begin on the Vice President's replacement. Has to win Senate approval. Has to be a Bush loyalist or at least appear disconnected enough to party operations not to care what happens for the remainder of a lame duck term. Has to be resonant with the consistent failings and contradictions of the two Bush administrations. Or some percentage of all those criteria.

And one more besides: That someone has to be interested in being the Republican nominee for president in 2008. The Bush White House wants to choose the next president, even as the Supreme Court cheated and chose him back in 2000.

I think that's how the Far Right is going to dispense with John McCain.

[LakeSamish706]

1. Yep, maybe they will hire Jeb Bush as McCains VP! n/t

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. K & R, the best written, most plausible opining I've seen here for a while.

:kick:

[billbuckhead]

3. Connie Rice to the rescue!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. on edit, I know what you mean, but really?

The last thing she wants is to debate anything.

She is a person of driven ambition, yet seems to have the sense to know that she is best served by staying waaayyy under the radar, seeing as she was heading the NSA during 9/11 and so forth.

second edit, took me long enough to :rofl:

[billbuckhead]

6. Then, Kindasleezy can be the new Putin!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

7. I think she looks to Brezhnev for her inspiration.

:-)

[saltpoint]

14. Kind words -- thank you, BleedingHeartPatriot, and my god what a

perfect symbol picture you've got there in your sig field -- McCain snugglin' up to ol' Dubya.

I have a feeling if the Republicans had run anyone halfway electable for their nomination, McCain's name wouldn't be in even one newspaper today.

[truebrit71]

5. Interesting. I personally think he will pick Joe LIEberman....

....just to throw one last 'fuck you' to the fundamentalists that screwed him last time around...

It will depend on who wins the Dem nomination though...if it's Hill, he'll pick LIEberman..if it's Barack then he'll need to get some right-wing knuckle-dragger to shore up the base...

Either way I think the * junta has run out of influence...

[Mojambo]

9. Lieberman has said he won't accept.

Whether we should believe a damn thing he says or not remains to be decided.

[saltpoint]

8. It strikes me that Bush et al have no other levers to pull.

They aren't going to initiate any Great Society or New Deal -like initiatives with a view toward transforming American life and well-being.

They can't stand in defense of their own failings in international affairs. It's too messy and it alienates lot of their own people. Republicans as well as Democrats make up the electorate, and BushCo lied to us all.

But they have this one political lever left to short-circuit the political future of their party and their country.

I just think the public and likely the private outcry against McCain as their nominee will result in a kind of short-circuiting, with Cheney stepping down and Dubya appointing the replacement, who in effect would have the inside track for the GOP nomination in Minneapolis.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

10. PS, except your theory presupposes a Cheney resignation. He ain't givin' up nothin'

You can take that to the bank.

[saltpoint]

11. He growls his bulldog's growl and flashes his lizard tongue at the media,

but what's in it for him, really, for the next 10 months?

His trickiness has brought a mixed result. He got the cash flow to his pals at Halliburton, he's shoved his weight around at the CIA and any number of other agencies, he's told Patrick Leahy to "go fuck yourself."

On the down side, he has to preside (and monitor and direct, probably) Dubya's final year as the lamest of all lame ducks. He has to preside over a Senate that is increasingly Democratic, increasingly less likely to be intimidated, and in increasing cases, more likely to tell HIM to "go fuck yourself." That can't be a fun job for Dick.

His Washington life has always been about grabbing power and intimidating people from the underground bunker. He's a lot like the Marvel villain The Kingpin. Inaccessible and massively influential, able to put the hurt on any whimper of opposition at the drop of a steel hat.

He's filthy rich, he's stunk up the place big time, he's shown he's the Machiavellian heavyweight of all U.S. veep history, and he can stick it to the Democrats one last time with a mere chest cold.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

16. He also had his office catch on fire.

He just plain sucks.

[saltpoint]

17. Yes, there's the office fire. Pretty odd that of all the government

offices to have a fire, this one happened to be that one!

Ah but I'm one of those sheep the liberal media leads around by their nose!

[K Gardner]

12. Wow. Excellent and well-reasoned. Scarily, I can see this as a much more plausible

scenario than what is going on right now in the republican party. The way things have been going lately, I won't be at all surprised to see this play out. Thanks, OC, for something of substance to chew on !!

[saltpoint]

13. Hi, K Gardner. It's my wish that it never comes to be, but when the

topic is the Bush administration, it seems as if just about anything can happen.

There's an Alice In Wonderland Down the Rabbithole feel to things when Bush administration officials are on tv. They are the Big Top freak show of our age.

A scary bunch.

[Historic NY]

15. That backfired with McKinley & T.R...............

they wanted to put T.R. someplace where he could be marginalized. Well we all know what happened to McKinley and T.R. really batted that big stick around.

[saltpoint]

18. Yes -- the success rate for such things is always iffy.

But I don't see any other project for these poor dears on the docket.

And they appear to have a cantankerous streak to 'em a mile long.

[bklyncowgirl]

19. Interesting--but who could it be?

The Republican factions: Big Money,Big Jesus and the Warhawks have not been able to agree on a candidate.

Big Money backed Romney but have not been able to sell him to the fundamentalists. Big Jesus is in revolt. Their leaders--who are in cahoots with Big Money--have not been able to convince the flock to support Romney. The rank and file fundamentalists are flocking to the populist preacher Huckabee who Big Money despises about as much as they despise McCain. The Warhawks and what remains of the old Budget Hawks are backing McCain who is hated by Big Money and not exactly loved by the Big Jesus crowd.

So who could they pick?

Jeb Bush comes to mind but the Bush name is pretty much spoiled--at least for now. It would have to be someone folksy and outwardly pious enough (in the proper Protestant manner of course) to rein in the fundies intent on nominating one of their own, but someone who also understands that the real game is that Big Money calls the shots and his job is to convince those Republicans who are not filthy rich that their best interest lies in the miracle of trickle down economics.

This could get interesting.

[saltpoint]

20. Hi, bklyncowgirl. Good question. I kind of steered clear of the Who Will It

Be question -- not because it isn't worth asking (It's definitely worth asking -- especially after Romney's departure earlier today) -- but because I don't have a clue in hell!

Agree with you on slobberin' Jeb -- that last name isn't going to get him very far on the 08 ticket.

As some have mentioned upthread, Rice is an option, which might do 3 things for the Pukes: she's not the fundies' first choice, but she'll do -- they begrudgingly like her well enough. Also, if Hil is on our ticket, she can go woman-to-woman with her, and if Barack is on out ticket, she can go Afro American-to-Afro American with him.

[bklyncowgirl]

21. Sorry, Old Crusoe, I can't see them going the Condi route.

For one thing she's not going to make the Hawks too happy--she & Deadeye Dick have been at each other's throats. For another thing those conservative Southern white just aren't going to vote for a black woman, or a white woman for that matter.

I think it would be some safe governor type--not a total fundie like the Huckster though--can't have any real religious convictions getting in the way of the need to take from the poor and give to the rich.

[saltpoint]

22. Well, madam, I'm voting your version, hands down. I can't STAND Rice.

Except at Thai restaurants, and then I love it.

Truly, i bet we could come up with a real long list of career trainwrecks of the Bush administrations, but she'd be near the top of both lists, is my guess.

A governor type? I bet that's exactly it.