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
Al D'Amato can take a long walk off a short pier. The unmitigated nerve. Cheney's a great guy but let's get rid of him anyway. Right. What's D'Amato going to say when the establishment media beats up on the next VP candidate...say he's a great guy and get rid of him too? If a credible Conservative party is ever established, I'm there.
In My Humble Opinion
Pssssssst
The Republican Convention is in New York; pass it on
BTW, Guiliani is wildly popular and admired, especially in the wake of 9/11. You may be weeping, but good and decent people across the land will be watching and listening to him and it will be a good thing.
Al Damn auto is a major looser.
Not a conservative, Not a Liberal....Not anything but a former Senator.
Absolutely. There are so many messes. The anti-Bush's are chipping away with misinterpretations about Czech/Atta, "al Qaeda in Iraq as a significant reason to go to war, nukes, etc. It's embarassing. Perhaps worse was that reflexive and confusing response Tenet was forced to give about Bush's State of the Union speech, which was hasty, undue, and gave a semblance to the idea that "Bush lied" even though he didn't. The failure to state and define our problems in the UN after repeated embarassments there is simply astounding. Maybe Powell still hopes he'll be loved in Paris someday.
The Admin. team seems to say "just call Iraq the war on terrorism and stay the course." As you know, Bush's father's "stay the course" plan was so successful...
It all gives Kerry an opening to pretend he's any different than Bush by just claiming he's going to be different.
It's very embarassing. Bush is lucky his opponent is such a patently insincere person.
Right you are.
:)
zzzzzzzzzz
Bwaaaahaha!
Er ... ah ... excuse my outburst.
Do the name Second American Revolution ring da bell?
I have agree with you PKM. I feel Cheney would step down himself, if he felt he would drag the ticket down. Unfortunately though, the media has succeeds in doing to Cheney, what they did so effectively to Quail. They will not let Haliburton, the use of an (well placed, IMHO) off color epithet on the Senate floor or the many other issues they have concocted die.
While it would disappoint me greatly, it would not surprise me to see Cheney step aside, during the next few weeks, for health reasons.
If Al were so brilliant, he would have suggested a better opponent against Scumer, other than himself. For those who don't remember, Schumer kicked his butt.
its an uncertainty, especially while the investigation is ongoing. this could be the Dems October surprise.
My question as well.
Shermy! My Plame Game buddy. Say it ain't so...that you're on the dump Cheney bandwagon.
I'm cut to the quick!
I consider D’Amato a traitor for the party for even bring this topic up in public.
What team player airs their disagreements with the President in such a volatile climate like this unless the real reason is to hurt the ticket?
"we can't win the election without independents"
Correct. But that doesn't translate into "liberals". Liberals are the enemey.
On a whole litmus test of different issues, people like Schwarezenegger, Pataki and Giuliani are not only far to the left of mainstream Republicans politically, they are to the left of mainstream America. They are NOT "moderates". Terming them that is a sell-out to the Liberals who employ that word in such a fashion.
"..there aren't enough conservatives to win."
Oh, really? If that were the case, how do you explain Ronald Reagan? He was told the same thing and he was elected twice - and is considered one of America's best Presidents. MOST Americans are more conservative politically than they are liberal.
Bush's failing, if he has any, is not that he is too conservative. His failing is his thus far poor ability to clearly communicate the genuine reasons for our involvement in Iraq - and there are MANY - in a fashion in which the electorate with its all too short memory, but not necessarily liberal mentality, can grasp. He has to re-inforce the connection between what we are doing overseas militarily, with international terrorism and how that these military actions are a significant part of that picture. He has to spell out the linkage between Iraq, Iran, Syria and other lunatic regimes and the kinds of criminals who killed so many Americans on 9-1-1 and are even now threatening further acts of outrage. He needs to get angry over these issues, express that anger to the American people and take strong and firm actions against those renagade nations.
He needs a better sales pitch, not a different product.
Long ago the Democratic Party was a populist party. It was gradually infiltrated and taken over by radical left-wing zealots. The Republican Party was headed in the same wrong direction until Ronald Reagan rescued it. His successor, Bush I was a poor substitute for the great man who proceeded him and failed to carry on with the Reagan Revolution. The bilious hatred expressed so vitriolically by the radical left in America for Reagan is as much a testimony to HIS success and the success of his policies, as is the genuine and justifable adulation of the American Public for that great man.
I was hoping the son (Bush II) would prove to be a better man than the father (Bush I). So far, I believe he is. But I will be watching closely what is said and done at the Republican Convention. If Carl Rove and his illegal-alien- loving, anti-gun, pro-campaign-reform comrads in the party succeed in turning the Republican message into "Democratic Lite" Bush will loose.
Bush II should stop trying to emulate Metternich and try better to emulate Ronald Reagan.
What questions over Haliburton?
Nothing personal. But if Cheney won't defend himself effectively, why should Bush bother keeping him?
Don't worry form me on other matters...I'm going to ping you on something new.
I see you live in Colorado.
If you LIKE illegal aliens, love homosexuals, and hate guns - you'll LOVE Giuliani.
The last time I saw VP Cheney on TV in Ohio, I thought he looked really tired. It wouldn't surprise me either to see him step aside. I want him to be around for a long time since he is such a great advisor and needs to enjoy life with his wife and kids/grandkids. Don't think with his medical problems being out on the campaign trail day after day is best for him. I really worry about him and his health.
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