McCain to name Lieberman as VP?

From FT.com:

Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee who has endorsed John McCain, is being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential hopeful, according to an adviser to Mr McCain’s ­campaign.

Mr Lieberman, who has campaigned for the Arizona senator, has long been ­considered an unconventional but plausible choice for Mr McCain.

Although Democrats have rejected Mr McCain’s image as a maverick politician, Mr Lieberman’s support for the presumptive Republican nominee has, much to the chagrin of his former ­colleagues, helped to boost Mr McCain’s reputation as a bi-partisan legislator with friends on both sides of the aisle. Mr Lieberman, a staunch supporter of Israel, could also help Mr McCain win over Jewish voters.

“[McCain] loves Lieberman. And he is on the [short-]list because Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule is, don’t take someone who costs you votes,” said one McCain adviser.

But not everyone would be enthusiastic about Mr Lieberman being added to the ticket. While Mr Lieberman has staunchly defended Mr McCain’s support of the surge, the escalation of US troops in Iraq, and the lawmakers have teamed up on legislative proposals to ­combat global warming, the registered independent is aligned with Democrats on most other issues.

“Conservatives would be pissed as hell – I think you would have a revolt, but sometimes John does what John wants to do,” the McCain adviser said.

John always does what John wants to do.

That's the problem.

John McCain's "towering moral vanity" (as George Will put it) reaches such Olympian heights of brain-dead preening self-importance (as Lemuel Calhoon puts it) that he is incapable of seeing his any and every brain fart as anything but the very gold standard of honor, integrity and near divine wisdom.

Of course McCain wants Lieberman on the ticket with him. With the exception of Lieberman's support for the war in Iraq and his unconditional support for Israel Lieberman is a card carrying left-liberal.

Before accepting the number two spot on Al Gore's ticket Lieberman credibly advocated some conservative positions regarding the degradation of our popular culture. However at the same time that Gore was parading his wife before the Hollywood power brokers and making her grovel and beg forgiveness for ever daring to suggest that there was anything less that 100% wholesome coming out of the entertainment industry (or perhaps for daring to suggest something so outmoded as there being any value in a concept so backward as "wholesomeness" in the first place) Gore was also requiring Lieberman to make his peace with the purveyors of cultural decay.

This pretty much destroyed any credibility that Lieberman ever had on the cultural issues so all he has left to keep him from being in complete lockstep with San Fran Nan and the rest of the socialist left is his views on national security.

Well, national security as far as defending ourselves against Islamofascism goes. Lieberman, like McCain has no concept of how much our security is endangered by our porous borders. Or if he does then he considers letting the odd suitcase nuke or canister of VX into the country an acceptable price for also allowing a never ending flood of illiterate Mexican peasants into the nation as well.

Barack Obama is doing everything in his power to hand this election to John McCain. McCain is tied with or slightly ahead of Obama in nearly every major poll and the public is indicating that they trust McCain to handle the most important issues facing the nation more than they trust Obama to deal with them. And everything Obama does and says seems almost deliberately calculated to drive even more people to McCain.

But then McCain seems to do everything in his power to drive them back to Obama or to cause Republican conservatives to sit this election out. If McCain names a man who is a left-wing, pro-abortion socialist in every way other than his support for our military then McCain will all but guarantee the election of B. Hussein Obama.

This is the most utterly screwed up pair of presidential campaigns I've ever seen.

Can't we dump both of these clowns and start over?