Bill Kristol is so enamored of Joe Lieberman’s speeches on fighting the Islamist threat that he’s proposing a wild idea:
What the heck–offer him the vice presidency. (Rudy, you might try State or Defense, since you’ll need a pro-life running mate.) But McCain-Lieberman, Thompson-Lieberman, Romney-Lieberman, Huckabee-Lieberman–those sound like winning tickets to us. It’s true, given the behavior of the congressional Democrats, the GOP nominee might well win with a more conventional running mate. But why settle for a victory if you can have a realignment?
The Corner‘s Peter Wehner enthusiastically agrees.
Given that I have no idea which of the four leading contenders will win the Republican nomination, I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to whom he’ll pick as his running mate. I can say with supreme confidence, however, that it won’t be Joe Lieberman.
The idea, frankly, is baffling. Yes, Lieberman is a foreign policy hawk. He’s probably even a neocon. Even to the extent that out-of-favor agenda is somehow the path to retaining the White House, however, it makes no sense to chose a backup quarterback who would install an entirely different domestic policy game plan were the starter to go out.
Lieberman is a moderate liberal who won the Democratic party’s vice presidential nod in 2000. He became anathema to his old party within a few years almost solely on the single issue of the Iraq War. Why on earth would a conservative Republican want him on the ticket?
It would make far, far more sense to pick a young, up-and-coming Republican governor for the number two spot. Surely, it wouldn’t be hard to find one who shares the nominee’s basic vision on foreign and domestic policy.
