Posted on 07/07/2004 10:41:28 AM PDT by areafiftyone
ALBANY — President Bush should consider dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from the Republican ticket this year, an influential former GOP senator said Wednesday. Alfonse D’Amato said Bush should consider putting Secretary of State Colin Powell or Sen. John McCain of Arizona on the GOP ticket. There was no immediate comment from the Bush-Cheney campaign. Bush has long maintained he wants Cheney to be his running mate. The D’Amato advice came one day after Bush’s Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, announced he had selected Sen. John Edwards to be his running mate. “Let me note that Vice President Cheney is a decent, honorable, and patriotic American, a man of great intellect, who has served the president and the nation with dedication,” D’Amato said in a statement released by his office. “But we should make no mistake, we are a nation at war with a vicious terrorist foe, and in war hard decisions must be made.” “As an observer of politics, I believe the president can guarantee his essential re-election by looking to several other notable individuals who would add a great dimension to his ticket as a running mate,” the New York Republican added. Placing Powell “first and foremost” on his wish list to replace Cheney, D’Amato said the retired general “would help galvanize the nation and offer a truly historic opportunity for American unity and pride.” McCain, said D’Amato, is “a genuine American hero who would also help bridge the political divide in our nation and assure the president’s re-election by a wide margin.” “While I believe George Bush will win re-election even without this bold stroke, he will insure a broader, deeper, more resonant reaffirmation of his leadership if he places his duty to continue as president above any one individual,” D’Amato said. “The president deserves more than simple re-election,” the former senator added. “He deserves a mandate to continue to lead this nation to peace and prosperity.” D’Amato, who is now a highly successful lobbyist and consultant, first raised the possibility of Bush dropping Cheney from the GOP ticket in an interview Tuesday night with the NY 1 cable news channel in New York City. D’Amato is a regular commentator for NY 1. In his NY 1 appearance, D’Amato said that while he realized his comments would “shock Republicans and probably get them angry,” he said, “I think we can do better.” The former senator said he believed Powell would run with Bush if the position was offered to him. That, said D’Amato, “would change politics in America for the better.” “Instead of millions of African-Americans having their votes taken for granted or just saying, ‘Republicans don’t care about us, they don’t reach out to us,’ this would send an incredible signal,” D’Amato said. “It would turn many of the battle (ground) states into tremendous wins for Republicans.” D’Amato said McCain, who had been unsuccessfully courted by Kerry as a running mate, would help the GOP win votes from independents and conservative “Reagan Democrats.” D’Amato, who lost his Senate seat in 1998 to Democrat Charles Schumer, is a political mentor to New York Gov. George Pataki, who is considered a potential 2008 GOP presidential candidate.
Originally published on July 7, 2004
Some people say that Cheney deserves to be vice-president because his son was killed in an automobile accident. /sarcasm off
It should at least convince Boy Edwards he is not ready to play at this level. I am horrified by what little experience he has - it's as if he wanted to continue his political career, knew he would not win re-election, didn't want to go down as a Representative, had no chance of becoming Governor - he threw the ultimate of "Hail Marys" as you lot would say, and ran for the Presidency. That's an absolutely dreadful way to find someone to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
The idea of "President Edwards" frightens the hell out of me - Tony Blair has met him and came away extremely unimpressed.
Regards, Ivan
If Cheney gets tarnished by the Plame investigation, it might be expedient to drop him.
Maybe Al should STFU. He lost to Chuck Schumer, WTF does he know about anything?
I thought he was talking about the rat party, as justification for his suggestion regarding Cheney's dumping.
Forgetable...
D'Amato, who once sang "Old MacDonald" on the floor of the Senate.looking for his 15 seconds of fame...
NOW I know why he was referred to as "Al DeMento" by his liberal opponents.
The line up of speakers at the Republican convention ALREADY has me worried - the "Gubernator", Pataki, Giuliani - a regular rogue's gallery of leftist RINOs.
If Bush swing to the left to try to draw any liberal voters, he will loose his conservative base - and I will be one of them. And dumping Cheney would be simply unforgivable.
(Got that Carl Rove???)
I lost all respect for Al D'Amato the day he sang the "old McDonald had a farm" bs years ago. Given the fact he got fired by the voters, by a large margin, the gall he displays with this is stunning.
He's one of the reasons I have never joined the Republican Party, choosing to stay a registered lifelong Independent. He's a prime example of why I refer to the GOP "Leadership" as The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight.
Kerry made a huge mistake. He chose popularity over experience. Edwards will goof up big time - Just watch. He may be okay on the campaign trail with all those women oooooing and ahhhhing but when he comes into the studio and has to sit down and hash it out - he's going to screw up BIG TIME! Kerry should have chose Gephardt - Gephardt had over 20 years of experience in the Senate. Just look at the lookwarm response in the media.
lookwarm=lukewarm
"With the selection of Edwards, this is an incredibly stupid idea - I am looking forward to seeing Cheney, in his soft Wyoming twang, tear the Boy Edwards to pieces."
Yep, pretty much demonstrates why Al isn't holding an elective office, doesn't it?
I like Powell, but the kind of unity you are looking for would not happen, even with him. Too much hatred and ignorance on the left, pumped into the sheeple's living room via the mainstream media. you can't unify with that.
there really is not reason for the country to not be unified - except for this hatred from teh left and the media. Bush hasn't done anything to divide the country. What the Bush political team has done is ceded the premise on issue after issue to the lies of the left, without effectively countering it. The divisions that exist are built on lies about Iraq, and its going to be hard/impossible to take those premises back - absent some major WMD revelation for example.
The only way I see VP Cheney stepping down is for health reasons -- if the doctor was concerned about his heart condition then I think he should step aside and think about his health. There is no way that Pres Bush would just drop him from the ticket IMHO.
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