Is that even legal based on GOP party rules? I have read that it is not allowable because Lieberman is not a registered thug.

Love this line from a Mark Kleiman post on the subject:

And a McCain-Lieberman ticket would look like two guys leaving the Assisted Living facility for a vigorous nine holes of golf.

ROTFL...now that there's funny and I don't care who you are.

I think this is a false leak to divert media attention from Obama. There's no chance McCain actually picks Lieberman no matter how much he wants to -- there's simply no polling data to suggest that Lieberman helps the ticket. I'm betting that the choice is female based on McCain's non-stop concern trolling these past two weeks about the treatment of Clinton.

Damn. And I was so looking forward to all those "McCain/Loserman" bumperstickers!

Oh please oh please oh please!

Please force the 28%ers to choose among an African-American, a pro-choice Jew, and staying home!

The news here is that Robert Novak apparently is doing okay enough to think he has genuine insider news. The Novak situation just seems so odd--I thought he was out of the picture due to a brain tumor?

It's unfortunate the conventions are timed so closely. I see McCain's VP announcenment and the resulting hoopla sucking the oxygen out of Obama's post-convention bump.

It's Huckleberry. Book it.

Rove's not the mastermind he's claimed to be, but he ain't stupid either. He knows Lieberman wouldn't be palatable to the racist anti-Semites in his base.

By McCain's twisted logic, he has to choose Romney. After all Romney "won millions of votes" in the primary. Yes, Romney criticized McCain as an unrepentant flip flopper, but that is the truth. If McCain doesn't pick Mitt, he is clearly afraid of the truth.

I can see the tag lines now, "McCain - Lieberman: Two Old Guys Sending Young Guys Off to Wars"

But if the unveiling is in Ohio, I'd imagine the likely pick might be Rob Portman. Portman would shore up McCain's fiscal credibility --like a wine cork shores up New Orleans' levees, but still.

I guess we'll find out soon enough -- McCain has made his selection, and will announce his pick tomorrow at an event in Ohio.

Part of his plan to steal the news cycle, and yet it's on a Friday. There'll be pawlenty of excitement.

Dale

I so wish they would quit with this 'Independent Democrat' thing - either you're an Independent OR you're a Democrat. It drives me nuts.

Lieberman always reminds me of Willie - ALF's dad from the 80s sit-com. They have exactly the same voice.

I'm with Dale. It's Pawlenty.

My preferences:

Joe LIEberman (zionist - AIPAC)
JoKe Scarborough (redneck - FL)
Charlie Crist (gay - FL)
Condi Rice (gay - Exxon)
Ronnie Raygun (god - beyond)

Ronnie Raygun is an obvious 1st choice - he makes McSame look young.

Joe LIEberman is a great choice - approved by neocons & zionists & AIPAC & the Likud Party

Condi Rice would be a great choice - during the next crisis, she could be the v.p. out buying shoes rather than the national security advisor out buying shoes. Would split some of the Afrikan and gay votes from Obama.

Charlie Crist is a secondary choice who could help with Florida and with the gay communities.

JoKe Scarborough would be my 'light horse' pick. Sorry, republicans don't do 'dark horses'. Knows how to smirk while attacking democrats. Knows all the code words to appeal to rednecks.

This might be a little bit of a stereotype here, but I don't think the contempt for which the base of the party, as represented on the blogs and so on, has for Joe Lieberman. I used to give him a lot more leeway than most because he was simply speaking his mind, and even if I disagreed with that, there's something to be said for doing what you believe in. But he has long since passed the point of swimming against the current in an honorable way. Now he's little more than a pathetic hack. I would love to show up at the polling station at 6:00 AM (or whenever it opens) to vote against a McCain-Lierberman ticket as much as I would love to vote for an Obama-Biden ticket. I suspect a lot of my fellow dirty liberal Democrats feel the same way, so I imagine that even if the number of conservatives or those who lean that way who sit home is pretty small, whatever gains McCain might make by picking Lieberman would be swarmed by the number of people voting against the ticket.

i think pawlenty is the safe *yawn* bet, and were i putting my own cash on it, that would be my prediction.

but i would not be at all surprised if it is Sen. Hutchinson or even Meg Whitman if Team McCain thinks they need to try the desparation deep pass.

The Novak situation just seems so odd--I thought he was out of the picture due to a brain tumor?
Posted by: Beth in VA at 10:12 AM

I agree. The Cadaver said we weren't going to have hime to kick around any more. He lied again.

McBush trusts HoJoe. McBush doesn't trust or like Rove or Romney. Rove and Romney would keep McBush's oxygen tube from him until he did what they told him to do. McBush would be the horse that Romney rode in on. McBush hates the idea of having to put rats in his pockets.

Rather than McCain's VP announcement stealing Obama's thunder, I suspect it'll work the other way round.

Do you remember all the breathless anticipation among the villagers leading up to the Biden announcement? I don't see anything like that on McCain's pick. He's held it up to the very last minute, and yet almost nobody cares.

It's so adorable the way some posters here are acting like Bob Novak thought up any of the ideas for his columns or wrote anything himself in the last 15 years. You guys are so cute!

About an hour after McCan't announces his veep, Obama and Biden should announce one or two major cabinet nominees who happen to be highly newsworthy (a Republican for example, or Richardson for Sec. of State). Completely waste one of the few big plays McCan't has left.

the religious right is already threatening a walkout.

The religious right already threatened a walkout if McCain got the nomination. Didn't happen then; won't happen if Lieberman (or Ridge or any other pro-choice possibility) gets the veep nod.

Only a statistically insignificant portion of the "religious right" is actually "religious" per se; mostly they're just a walking montage of seething cultural resentments. A pro-choice vice presidential nominee might mean that the religious right may not get to hear their favorite lines about how the only women who get abortions are promiscuous sluts as often as they like, but I'm sure Two Minute Hates of Muslims or the Russians or the French or the ACLU or university professors will serve.

zeitgeist, if McCain goes XX, I don't think it'll be Hutchison; more likely Palin, even with her baggage. But he's not going to lose the never-vote-for-a-skirt-or-a-negro vote by putting a woman on the ticket. I think his will be the "Two White Guys--Just Like the Good Old Days!" ticket.

I'm thinking it breaks down like this:

60% chance it's Pawlenty
25% chance it's a woman (Hutchinson, Palin, Fiorina, Collins)
8% chance it's Romney
5% chance it's Lieberman
2% chance he goes off the board

Seitz, with all due respect . . . Collins!?!?!?! Not in a million years! First of all, she's up for re-election. Second of all, she can't communicate to save her life. And, finally, she has never been married; while I, personally, don't give a rodential rectum about politicians' personal lives (as long as they're not causing harm to anyone,) the vast majority of Americans would never be able to deal with the rumors and unanswered questions surrounding a never-married candidate. It's the same reason Janet Napolitano was never in serious contention to be our VP pick. If McCain wanted to go with one of the moderate Mainers, he would go with the other one, the wildly popular Olympia Snowe, who was safely re-elected in 2006, communicates with ease, and is married! I would be afraid of that ticket if it ever happened. Fortunately, I don't think it will, since the Rove machine will fight against the presence of a pro-choicer on the national ticket.

Announcement in Ohio?

Maybe Rob Portman or John Kasich?

McCain/Alaska Governor Pretty Face and Five Kids 2008.

Who is shocked? The Rove GOTV strategy for the Christian right isn't going to work with McCain (questionable faith) and a Jew. The militant Christians won't vote for someone who's Jewish. (Something about Jews killing Jesus or some such nonsense... Never mind that with Jesus dying there isn't much of a religion there. But, I diagress...)

Rove has his proven strategy. He doesn't like deviation from his proven game plan.

Joe Lieberman is your nominee!!!

This is the ploy to inoculate McCain from Rove.

See...I didn't listen to him on my VP pick....

Anyone else looking forward to McCain/Loserman signs?

Oh, he's decided alright...

he just can't remember how many people he's asked to be his Vice President, and has refered the matter to his staff who can't , at this stage, be sure just how many V.P. picks McAce has made. The A.P. is reporting that McAce's campaign has made it very clear that one of the one's he asked was not Joe Biden.

Oh, he's decided alright...

he just can't remember how many people he's asked to be his Vice President, and has refered the matter to his staff who can't , at this stage, be sure just how many V.P. picks McAce has made. The A.P. is reporting that McAce's campaign has made it very clear that one of the one's he asked was not Joe Biden.

Seitz, with all due respect . . . Collins!?!?!?!

Hey, I'm just spitballing here.

Senator Voinovich, if he's smart, and wants to improve his standing on economic issues.

Has anyone here seen the Big Love, the HBO show about a Mormon family?

Romney reminds me of the main character with the three wives. He looks and sounds just like him. Especially when he (Romney) is surrounded with his brood of kids.

On thinking about it, Lieberman's not a horrible choice for McCain. We're about to the point where the maverick image is looking a bit cracked. He sees that an obvious way to loose this election, for him, is to be tied to Bush and the republican party. Therefore, picking Lieberman will allow him to show of his bipartisan cred and it reinforces the maverick lie. There's no downside for Lierberman. Joe's political clout is gone in 2009, unless McCain wins.

Fiorina would be an excellent pick, she can teach John the basics of Seagull management (Fly in, shit all over everything, fly away) and how to steer the golden parachute to gilded horizons (or in McTrollop's case, Secure Horizons)! Of course, a Huckleberry pick would at least provide a VP who never once changed his position during the primary, even though it happens to be bat-shit crazy. I’d bet my left nut it’s going to be an old white guy though! Really old white guy and old white guy 08’.

Kristol and Brooks like the idea of the pairing, while the religious right is already threatening a walkout.

Do you think we'll see the same level of media wanking over party disunity in Minneapolis that we saw in Denver? Interviews with Ron Paul supporters? Any sign that the rank and file are anything but fanatically united behind their candidate?

Yeah, me neither.

If McCain picks Kay Hutchison, it will appeal to lots of Hillary's supporters but also look like pandering.

McCain might pick dark-horse Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, "one of the leading Republicans in the House" to shore up VA and the Jewish vote. If so, would they make a formidable opponent?

*

I've been saying for quite a while it seemed like McCain would choose Leiberman. He promised him SOMETHING for campaigning for him, and frankly, it's a smart choice. It's a smart choice because the Leiberman the nation knows is Gore's VP, and the Leiberman we know is the only guy other than McCain, who wants to return to the foreign policy of the first Bush term.

Ooh, that's just how Darcy came to realize Elizabeth Bennet might accept his proposal if he tried again! Because she refused to tell his aunt she WOULDN'T marry him!

Too fabulous. And yes, I called Lieberman Elizabeth Bennett.

Good stuff, rebecca.

The Hug and The Kiss on a single ticket? I may have to find out where the town's Catholic church is and go light a candle "for the intention".

Doesn't really matter who it is, Biden will eat their lunch in the debates. I'm hoping it's Giu9/11!iani, would love to see that "Noun, verb, and 9/11" line delivered to Rudy's face. Plus, he's insane. Bet his wife calls him in the middle of it.

The female names floated are just meant to draw PUMAs and other nuts from the (not really for) Clinton camp. McC*nt is not going to run with a woman. He's going to die in office, remember. If there is anything his treatment of women demonstrate it is the fact he does not respect them (unless they can drink him under the table).

LIEberman is floated as an excuse to run with Tom Ridge. "Sure he's pro-choice but at least he's a Republican" is going to be McC*nt's response to the outraged theocratic wingnut base.

Romney is possible, but McC*nt hates him no less than McC*nt hates Obama. And again, McC*nt is going to die in office, so he doesn't want to put Romney in.

Huckabee? While I think he has stuff going for him, he scares McC*nt's biggest donors, the Club for Greed.

Other names? At least Biden is known. You go down any further along the Republican't bench and you get some really minor players. I don't think McC*nt can "Dan Quayle" is choice.

But I could be wrong.

I agree with those here who think announcing tonight will bury the VP story rather then trump Obama's speech. And I thought the McC*nt campaign wants to attack Obama for his huge 'ego trip' speech at the Stadium. Won't announcing a VP kind of step on that story?

Are there any adults in the McC*nt campaign?