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.
ROFLMAO - Do you know you beat me by 1 second?
Hey Rats. Look how low your party has sunk. It is a party without ideas. With no core values. And a candidate whose top qualification is that "hes not Bush." And that your party must seek out a REPUBLICAN for VP to improve your chances at the ballot box.
Wow! CNN has this in bright red at the top of their page.
No Democrat wants to run with a loser.
And does anyone doubt that McCain would grab this in a second if he thought Kerry had a chance of winning?
I heard McCain say that he spent ? years in a Viet Cong prison, alone in the dark in a small cell and fed scraps....and he doesn't want to repeat that experience.
Actually when I try to do speed typing it comes out looking like some foreign language.
Regardless of how they spin it, whoever ends up being Kerry's VP (I'm thinking Uncle Fester myself) will now be the 2nd choice. And if Hillary continues to stay out, it means they are likely the 3rd choice. Which is ok because to most Dem. Kerry was the 2nd or 3rd choice so theres some kind of order to it all.
Second choice of the second choice.
McCain may have a bit of trouble keeping a plane in the air, but he's smart enough to stay off a sinking ship...
Kerry must not have much faith in his L.A. Times 7-point lead if he is still begging McCain.
Although... wouldn't it have been fun if McCain agreed to run as VP, and when his nomination was offered on the floor of the Dem Convention, McCain comes on the stage and says:
"I do not accept the nomination... in fact, I hereby endorse President George W. Bush for a second term."
Oh, well, I can dream, can't i?
AGAIN?...LOL
let me open my Democrat dictionary..... hmmmm... OK.... here it is:
PRI-VATE adj. information publicized without attribution.
Hmmm. keeping something PRIVATE means keeping your NAME off the record, when you blab it to the press...
LOL!! That's as far as I got in the article. Give me a break!
Doesn't it speak volumes that the "second-best" democrat in this election would be a Republican !!! What a bunch of losers !!!!
The Republican McCain haters here and elsewhere will say bad things about John McCain no matter what he does. They seem determined to turn John McCain into the next Jim Jeffords; but McCain seems even more determined to live and die a Republican.
Kerry came in 3rd in Oklahoma -- looks like OK RATs were right!
You people that have come on here since the primary season started this year amaze me with trying to split this forum. Do you think we are that dumb not realize what is going on? Now if meandog had said what you said, I could understand but not someone that came on here this year.
A lot of us have been on here for years so your comments about Republican McCain haters carries no weight with those of us who were part of this forum when the McClones tried to take over for McCain.
I don't like McCain for his actions in the Senate along with his comments in recent years -- getting more liberal (CFR comes to mind) -- but I never thought he would run as Kerry's VP. No way would he give up his Commerce Committee Chair and get kicked out of the Republican Caucus.
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