>>>a man who deserately wanted to be John F. Kerry’s VP running mate in ‘04
From back when nobody had axes to grind, when the NY Times and Arianna weren’t in panic mode trying to derail McCain to save the floundering Obama, and when lameass DU trolls who enrolled in January weren’t spending every post to undercut McCain with FR. The day Kerry Offered McCain Co-Presidency. Kerry begged, and McCain laughed at him.
Newsweek via Outside the Beltway November 5, 2004
James Joyner
Kerry’s courtship of Senator John McCain to be his running mate was longer-standing and more intense than previously reported. As far back as August 2003, Kerry had taken McCain to breakfast to sound him out to run on a unity ticket. McCain batted away the idea as not serious, but Kerry, after he wrapped up the nomination in March, went back after McCain a half-dozen more times.
“To show just how sincere he was, he made an outlandish offer,” Newsweek’s Thomas reports. “If McCain said yes he would expand the role of vice president to include secretary of Defense and the overall control of foreign policy. McCain exclaimed, ‘You’re out of your mind. I don’t even know if it’s constitutional, and it certainly wouldn’t sell.’”
Kerry was thwarted and furious. “Why the f— didn’t he take it? After what the Bush people did to him…’”
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2004/11/newsweek_election_issue_how_he_did_it/
See #65.
Actual video of McCain, openly admitting his desire to be Kerry's VP.
This, I daresay, trumps written secondhand account. ;)