As McCain's VP selection nears, Joe Lieberman has been consistently floated as a one of the top potential picks along with Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Robert Novak even came out of retirement to write a column urging McCain not to pick Lieberman. Last night we were treated to a Politico story about some supposed backstage intrigue regarding McCain's pick.
However, as Republican blog Race42008 points out, there's one little detail that makes me think the Lieberman chatter is just that - chatter designed to further McCain's "maverick" image.
The major thing standing in the way of a Lieberman Vice-Presidential pick for McCain is a seemingly small thing - an RNC rule that states that a Vice Presidential nominee must have been a Republican for at least 60 days prior to nomination.There are only two ways around that rule as far as I know - the first being that Lieberman has already switched his party affiliation a couple months ago secretly without letting anybody know (highly, highly, highly unlikely). The other option would be for the delegates to vote to waive that rule at the RNC -- and it's not hard to imagine how that would go.
If McCain chooses Lieberman, he won't just be telling the Republican base and Christian conservatives to stay home this fall - he'll face an unprecedented procedural fight at the convention, one it's not clear that he'd win.
Is McCain flipping the bird to his base and putting his best bud Lieberman on the ticket really worth all this trouble? It's hard to see how it could be. Instead, it's more likely the leaks to the press are designed to enchance McCain's "independent" credentials the week before he's set to appear at the convention with George Bush and Dick Cheney.
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