Posted on 06/11/2004 12:51:26 PM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. John McCain has personally rejected John Kerry's overtures to join the Democrat presidential ticket and forge a bipartisan alliance against President Bush, The Associated Press has learned.Kerry has asked McCain as recently as late last month to consider becoming his running mate, but the U.S. senator from Arizona said he was not interested, said a Democrat official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Kerry has insisted that his deliberations be kept private. A second official familiar with the conversations confirmed the account, and said the Arizonan made it clear he wouldn't change his mind.
Both officials said Kerry stopped short of offering McCain the job, sparing himself an outright rejection that would make his eventual running mate look like a second choice.
"Senator McCain categorically states that he has not been offered the vice presidency by anyone," said McCain's chief of staff, Mark Salter, who would not confirm the officials' account.
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter declined to comment.
The development might lay to rest speculation that Kerry and McCain would reach across Washington's deep partisan divide and forge an unprecedented political partnership.
The notion has been rife with obstacles from the start. McCain is a strong-willed conservative and Kerry a liberal from Massachusetts who would be loath to surrender presidential responsibilities that McCain might demand.
But the fellow senators and Vietnam veterans are friends, their bond sealed as they worked together to help President Bill Clinton normalize relations with Vietnam. Clinton, who avoided service in the war, needed the political cover from Kerry, a decorated Navy veteran, and McCain, a prisoner of war.
McCain's cool relationship with Bush fostered Democrats' hopes, but the senator has repeatedly declared his allegiance to the GOP. McCain lost a bitter campaign against Bush for the 2000 Republican nomination, leaving wounds that might never heal.
McCain has said publicly he had no intention of serving as vice president, but he left the door open just enough to create a constant buzz. His advisers say McCain has ruled out serving under Kerry, despite his respect for the Democrat.
Officials close to Kerry have reached out to McCain's advisers in hopes of persuading the senator to join the ticket.
A GOP maverick, McCain jumped to Kerry's defense when the White House accused the Democrat of being weak on defense. "This kind of rhetoric, I think, is not helpful," he said in March, admonishing the White House.
A shoot-from-the-hip style has made McCain one of the nation's most popular politicians, a champion of campaign finance reform and critic of pork-barrel spending, two issues that antagonized his fellow lawmakers. They accuse him of being a showboat, but a politically potent one.
A recent CBS News poll showed that a hypothetical Kerry-McCain ticket had a 14-point advantage over Bush-Cheney among registered voters, 53 percent to 39 percent. That's a huge improvement over polls showing Kerry tied or slightly ahead of Bush in head-to-head matchups.
Kerry is giving serious consideration to Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas, all former primary rivals, as well as Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.
When Vice President Dick Cheney's political status was shaky, McCain's name emerged as a potential replacement, and officials close to the senator never ruled out that possibility. Bush has since said Cheney will remain on the ticket.
A new Associated Press poll conducted by Ipsos-Public Research shows that 51 percent of registered voters believe Bush should keep Cheney on his ticket, with 43 percent wanting him to pick somebody else.
Among those also mentioned as potential Kerry running mates are Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Evan Bayh of Indiana; former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska; and Govs. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Mark Warner of Virginia, Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
McCain, a Navy bomber pilot, spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Kerry, who also served in the Navy during Vietnam, came home with three Purple Hearts and Bronze and Silver Stars and became a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. At one protest in 1971, he threw away war medals belonging to other veterans and cast his own military ribbons over a fence. McCain heard about it while he was still being held captive in the Hanoi Hilton.
After McCain was elected to the U.S. House, he campaigned against Kerry in his first Senate race, faulting him for tossing away those medals and ribbons. But the two came to terms in the Senate and began working together.
Well, that ought to shut the media up on McCain as Kerry's VP for about two weeks or so, or until the next time their poodle starts sliding in the polls, whichever comes first.
Why are you guys unloading on McCain? His conservative positions on pro-life and pro-military issues make him anathema to liberals. Does that not count for something?
IF this is true, it just shows how desperate and knowingly troubled the Kerry campaign must be. IF true, Kerry (Donna Brazil) labors under the delusion that McCain will be an asset.
Only the Bush campaign will benefit from McCain! And I used to be a McCainite!!!
Yes. There's no way in the world McCain wants to be vice-president--especially if he has to give up a Senate seat to do it.
This is great. Now anyone Kerry picks looks like a second choice!
I thought the term was "McCainiac". ;-)
He may have conservative positions on some issues, but his stance on gun control and campaign finance legislation make him anything but a "strong-willed" conservative.
The fact that someone like John Kerry, the most liberal senator, would consider McCain as a possible VP says volumes about how liberals view McCain's conservative convictions.
McCain doesn't want to associate himself with a loser.
My prediction is that Kerry's VP pick is going to be an old man with no future political aspirations in the Democratic Party (like Lloyd Bentsen in 1988). Anyone who has any intention of running for President in the future won't run the risk of being on a losing ticket with him.
My prediction all along has been Dick Gephart. Partly for the reason you mentioned. It gives him a retirment tour since he has no political future himsel while at the same time helping get the Union vote he will deperately need if he wants the midwest. Since he was already written off the south this is his only place to make a stand.
That must be true; why else would Kerry offer him the V.P. spot and the establishment press salivate over it? /sarcasm off
Anybody else think it was actually McCain who leaked the story because he hasn't had his name in the news for awhile and needs a little ego massage?
And does anyone doubt that McCain would grab this in a second if he thought Kerry had a chance of winning?
Yes, I do.
And my husband knows him personally.
IF, and that is a huge IF,
McCain leaked it, he did it
for no other reason than to
embarrass Kerry in the attempt
to have Kerry cease and desist
invoking John's name at ever opportunity.
I think it also speaks volumes about Kerry's arrogance in thinking that he has the far left sewed up. Whatever Kerry gained from the mushy middle by having McCain, he'd eventually lose on the left to Nader. The hard core left despises McCain's POW status, they're already uncomfortable enough with Kerry's three Purple Hearts, etc. They feel that Kerry undid the "damage" of voluntarily going to Vietnam by his fierce opposition of the war after he got back.
Putting McCain on the ticket would only alienate them all over again, to them, he doesn't need to lean rightward. If he does with a VP choice, many of them will inflate Nader's numbers.
What a shame we could have been rid of that bastard forever.
Again?
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