June 11, 2008
McCain Unlikely To Use Cheney In Campaign
Politico: Low Ratings, Rocky Relationship Could Keep Vice President On The Sidelines In '08
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Vice President Cheney is a highly effective fundraiser and a hero to the conservative wing of the party, but it's unlikely he'll appear with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain anytime soon. (AP)
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A closer look at Vice President Dick Cheney's career and his much-publicized health problems.
He’s a highly effective fundraiser in an election cycle where Republicans are starved for cash, a hero to the wing of the party that views John McCain with the most suspicion. He has four decades of campaign experience, ranging from a short stint running Gerald Ford’s election bid in 1976 to two successful races on the presidential ticket.
Yet despite that pedigree, Vice President Dick Cheney is unlikely to share a stage with McCain anytime soon-and may not be called on to play any role at all in the 2008 presidential campaign.
In part, it’s a reflection of political expediency. Though Cheney is one of the nation’s most influential and talked about vice presidents ever, his favorability ratings are near toxic lows.
But Cheney and McCain also have had a rocky relationship.
They have clashed publicly and privately during the Bush years on matters ranging from the treatment of terrorist detainees to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Most recently, they’ve been on opposite sides on the idea of a gas tax holiday and on a Cheney-backed energy bill.
As a result, Cheney finds himself on the outside looking in, without a clear role to play in one of the most consequential campaigns in history and one where his signature foreign policy legacy is on the line.
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said the vice president had not yet campaigned for McCain and had not, to her knowledge, been asked.
“I don’t think the McCain people want Cheney anywhere near him,” said a former Cheney aide.
Asked about what role Cheney would have in the campaign, McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker only said: “John McCain will always treat the vice president with respect.”
McCain sources note that there are no plans for Cheney and McCain to campaign together and most observers view such a prospect as highly unlikely, given Cheney’s low poll ratings and Democratic efforts to frame McCain as the third term of the Bush administration.
Still, Cheney sympathizers believe the vice president can be helpful.
“I think it’s clear that McCain’s biggest problem is with the conservative base of the party and that’s where the vice president is strongest,” said a close Cheney adviser. “If McCain’s smart, that’s where he’ll use him,” the adviser added, suggesting talk radio as a possible venue.
“Instead of pushing the vice president away, I’d use him to build bridges with various conservative constituencies,” added Cesar Conda, a lobbyist who worked for Cheney in the first term. “That’s where the party really needs him because the conservative base is in the doldrums.”
But even in a limited capacity, Cheney might make for an awkward surrogate given the prickly nature of his relationship with McCain.
After McCain said last year that Rumsfeld, Cheney’s friend and mentor in the Ford administration, would “go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history,” the vice president made plain his displeasure.
“I just fundamentally disagree with John,” Cheney told ABC News in an interview. “John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he’ll apologize to Rumsfeld.”
Cheney was alluding to an interview McCain gave to Politico in which he said President Bush “listened too much to the Vice President” and had been “very badly served by both the vice president and, most of all, the secretary of defense.”
Of course, McCain hasn’t always been critical of Cheney.
In an interview he gave to the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes in 2006 for Hayes’s biography, “Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President,” McCain said: “I will strongly asser to you that he has been of enormous help to this president of the United States.”
Going further, McCain even told Hayes in comments heretofore unpublished that he’d consider Cheney for an administration post.
Asked whether he’d be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: “I don’t know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah.”
For now at least, the two appear to have settled into something of a non-aggression pact. It helps that they don’t talk-and that McCain currently plays little role in Senate policy-making.
There have, however, been some mild flare-ups that have caught the attention of both camps.
Speaking at the National Press Club last week, Cheney made news by dismissing a central element of McCain’s nascent general election campaign: a summertime suspension of the federal gas tax.
“I think it's a false notion, in the sense that you're not going to have much of an impact, given the size of the gasoline tax on the total cost of the gallon of gas," Cheney said.
The following day, McCain returned the favor by holding up his opposition to the industry-backed energy bill that Cheney helped shape.
“[H]e voted for the energy bill promoted by the president and Vice President Cheney, which gave even more breaks to the oil industry,” McCain said of Barack Obama, making sure to get in a dig at the bill’s patron. “I opposed it because I know we won't achieve energy independence by repeating the mistakes of the last half century.”
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds also recently noted in a prepared statement that Obama “voted for Vice President Cheney’s energy bill while John McCain stridently opposed it.”
McBride said she wasn’t sure if Cheney knew about McCain’s support for the gas tax suspension. “There are going to be areas where there is disagreement,” she acknowledged.
Still, McBride emphasized that Cheney supports McCain and mentions him in all his political speeches while also warning of what an Obama administration would look like.
“The vice president has always said he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help Republicans,” she said.
What is most likely, say friends and observers of Cheney, is for the vice president to reprise his 2006 role as down-ballot fundraiser and server of partisan red meat.
“He is incredibly popular with the Republican base,” noted David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union and a Cheney friend dating back to their days battling one another in the 1976 GOP primary between Ford and Reagan. “I think you’ll see him out there, particularly in conservative areas. Members of Congress want him for fundraising.”
Though it has been little-noticed, Cheney has again taken with gusto to the GOP’s rubber chicken circuit.
In the last two months alone, he’s headlined 11 Republican fundraisers, keynoting for Senate and House candidates, state parties and the Republican National Committee’s Victory fund in states ranging from Colorado to Florida to Minnesota.
In the weeks ahead, he’ll raise cash for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Wyoming GOP and a Georgia congressional candidate.
In addition, he’ll speak before friendly interest groups to help push the conservative message. He’s scheduled to speak Wednesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
“There is a huge segment of the population that thinks Dick Cheney is a hero - despite what the press may think and what liberal Democrats may think,” said Ron Kaufman, a longtime GOP strategist and fundraiser.
The what-to-do-with-Cheney question could get uncomfortable when the GOP meets for theirconvention in September. Lame duck presidents have traditionally spoken at these party gatherings, but there hasn’t been a lame duck vice president.
“No decisions have been made on the program yet,” is all a McCain aide would say about the plan for St. Paul.
What happens after Labor Day, when the focus of the campaign turns away from fundraising and to made-for-media rallies, is also still an open question.
“It’s hard to predict the future,” said RNC spokesman Alex Conant. “In past cycles, the vice president has been a tremendous asset, especially to many of our congressional candidates.”
But a highly visible role for Cheney, even in red states, risks drawing unfavorable attention on McCain and the GOP’s slate of candidates, though.
Citing the party’s financial woes, Kaufman suggested keeping Cheney on the fundraising circuit.
“We’re in uncharted territory with the money deficit,” Kaufman said. “The most important thing I would do with him is have him keep raising money.”
In his highest-profile campaign appearance so far this cycle, Cheney didn’t help much. He stood with a Mississippi congressional candidate at a rally the night before a special election in a conservative-minded House district last month, but couldn’t salvage the race.
“The last time they put him on the road was for the Mississippi special, and look at how he worked there,” crowed Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the former House campaign chief for the Democrats and currently the caucus chairman. “I look forward to and I will pay the travel fees to put Vice President Cheney out on the road to talk about energy policy. Because it will remind this country of where this administration has been and who their friends are. And their friends are doing very well.”
Cheney is said to be philosophical about whether he can or can’t help the GOP ticket this year.
“His view is very much that he will do whatever he can to get McCain elected,” said a close Cheney adviser. “If that means doing nothing or not being out there very much, he’ll do that. If it means being out there, he’ll do that.”
By Jonathan Martin
Copyright 2008 POLITICO
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See all 491 CommentsDUH!! Ya think??
CNN''s National Poll of Polls
Barack Obama (47%) John McCain (43%)
RECENT POLLS: 6/10 | 6/5 | 6/2 | 5/30
CNN''s national general election "poll of polls" consists of four surveys: Gallup (June 7-9), CNN/ORC (June 4-5), CBS (May 30-June 3), and Cook Political Report/RT Strategies (May 29-31). The poll of polls showed 10% unsure; it does not have a sampling error. More polls
Cheney and Bushie are Major IDIOTS and Looser and Douschbags and that is why everybody is keeping their distance from the DYNAMIC LOOSER DUO.
Sorry McSame, you and Cheney and Bush are the all the same.
You lose.
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Stupid Pelosi whats with her!
Future headlines: McCain Unlikely To Use Bush In Campaign, McCain Unlikely To Use Karl Rove In Campaign, McCain Unlikely To Use Condoleeza Rice In Campaign, McCain Unlikely To Use Alberto Gonzalez In Campaign, McCain Unlikely To Use Donald Rumsfeld In Campaign and on and on and on...
Its his 95% Voting Record, in Favor of Bush Jr.
Its Bush doing his A$$ in !! and his Old Age 71-72 !!
And He`s Worried about Cheney !!!
Cheney`s laughing, saying to himself...
Your Old 72 yr old A$$ is going to Lose in November, Anyway and I did`nt want to campaign for a Geriatric, Semi-Senile Fool like You, Anyway. Let george Bush Ruin it for you...My Pleasure.
The Presumptive Nominees
CNN''s National Poll of Polls
Barack Obama (47%) John McCain (43%)
RECENT POLLS: 6/10 | 6/5 | 6/2 | 5/30
CNN''s national general election "poll of polls" consists of four surveys: Gallup (June 7-9), CNN/ORC (June 4-5), CBS (May 30-June 3), and Cook Political Report/RT Strategies (May 29-31). The poll of polls showed 10% unsure; it does not have a sampling error. More polls
You both are fossils.
You both believe in making illegal war on non-threatening, but oil rich middle east countries.
You both believe that executive power has no bounds.
You both think the Constitution is only a piece of paper to be ignored at will.
You both are LIARS and lie freely anytime you want to, no matter what the cost in lives and money.
You both have the speaking ability of a dunce to go along with the lies.
You are both mentally incompetent.
I think you should make him your vice-president! Let''s go for a third shrub term!
Posted by ddhinnyc
It says he''s the odds on favorite to actually complete his term if elected. That is more than you can say for 71 year old Melanoma man who probably couldn''t obtain a life insurance policy if....well if his life depended on it.
ABC News'''' Sunlen Miller Reports: Senator Barack Obama told reporters in St. Louis today that he has fallen off the wagon and smoked cigarettes in the last few months.
The presumptive Democratic nominee has been open about his smoking past: Once a heavy smoker, he publicly gave up the habit, per his wife%u2019s request, to run for president.
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He "quit" to run for President? What does that say about him? And he really didn''''t quit. What does THAT say about him?
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Posted by ddhinnyc at 09:55 AM : Jun 11, 2008
-Doctor: Obama in excellent health!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/29/politics/main4135837.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4135837
and what the hell does that have to do with Cheny?
Whether Obama gives up smoking or not is NOT an issue being president. The fact that he is HONEST enough to tell the truth about it is certainly a sign that he does not lie to people, unlike CHENEY AND FOSSIL JOHN.
But Posted by omega39 at 09:58 AM : Jun 11, 2008
What the are you saying we can see through division issues why not talk issues instead of trying to create contensions.
Why would you want to claim you''re different from Bush/Cheney and then appear with them and show the public that YOU''RE NOT?!
Everytime he appears with one or the other, he''s going to be losing votes!
Personally, I hope he appears with ALL these Bush/Cheney people! He''s no different from them, he might as well!
Is this what you are going to base your decision on?? Whether Obama smokes or not??
How efcking stupid are you?? Don''t you efcking READ??
If this is what the reps are going to say, "well he is trying to quit smoking, but has so far failed", then Obama is going to win by the landslide I predicted in May.
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Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 09:59 AM : Jun 11, 2008
Now THAT is what is called "colorful metaphor", good one Sarge!
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Posted by LibH8er at 10:06 AM : Jun 11, 2008
And this folks is what''s called copycat, not capable of producing original thought.
Very true. This shows someone in Fossil John''s camp is paying attention to the attitude of the American people.
What surprises me is that he bothered to listen to them. He usually doesn''t and makes dumb decision because of it thinking it won''t matter.
Posted by omega39 at 10:11 AM : Jun 11, 2008
They look like corpses.......
Posted by ddhinnyc at
I can''t argue that the Clintons aren''t vindictive. If she had won the presidency it would have been eight years of "paybacks" for those the Clintons felt had wronged them.
And this folks is what''''s called copycat, not capable of producing original thought.
Posted by aldon61 at 10:13 AM : Jun 11, 2008
That would require a brain.....something he is missing.......
Stephen Colbert re-writes the Pledge of Allegiance for the Confederacy
By: SilentPatriot
Like the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Stephen thinks it%u2019s unfair that the Confederate flag has to sit behind the American flag on %u201Cthe flag bus.%u201D To fight this prejudice against southern heritage, Stephen brings the Pledge of Allegiance into Confederacy-approved compliance.
%u201CI pledge allegiance to a couple of flags of the United-slash-Confederate States of America, and to the Republic for which they stand (or stand against), one Nation (until further notice), indivisible (for the time being), with liberty and justice for all (or y%u2019all).%u201D
Glow-rah Hallelujah!
Instead of posting ridiculous drivel, why don''t you try reading that article on why drilling in ANWR won''t solve our oil problems, as a study by the Dept. of Energy showed. You know, the one that proved you wrong? Here it is again, just in case:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4542853/
Have a nice day at school!
Posted by acolton1
Can we call these criminals "Loosers"?
After all, they have, so far, gotten away with their crimes.
Posted by acolton1
Can we call these criminals "Loosers"?
After all, they have, so far, gotten away with their crimes.
Posted by ianlou at 10:16 AM : Jun 11, 2008
So far..............
Anyone who calls his wife c*nt in front of reporters, who is known to get into shouting matches on the senate floor, is known to bully lesser senators, is known to ad-lib when it is best to stick to a scrpt, does not strike me as someone we need as president.
He would like as not go off half-cocked as president and do something without thinking it through and that is something we CANNOT afford as president.
Posted by SgtRDS-E4
well at least one of them is a rich, rich, rich corpse. Still, Cheney''s continuing need for medical procedures to keep that corpse animated has probably done a lot to run up healthcare costs for everyone.
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 10:17 AM : Jun 11, 2008
Yep and if you''re running for office they also issue you one each, stepford wife.
Posted by omega39 at 10:18 AM : Jun 11, 2008
Di*ck Cheney, the only creature actually born with an artificial heart...........
%u201C%u2026People are concerned about the economy and they%u2019re concerned about gas prices, and in %u201895 it was President Clinton who vetoed drilling in Anwar. If he had not done that, we would be seeing more gas in the pipeline right now. So this is an issue I think that%u2019s tailor made for John McCain.%u201D
Oy. Where to begin? The ANWR myth has been debunked, but Marsha wasn%u2019t about to let those pesky facts get in the way. Besides, it%u2019s much better to blame Bill Clinton than take responsibility for your own party%u2019s failures, right?
Surly it couldn''t be the windfall profits that Big Oil is receiving. Let''s see in 2000 when the Bush Gang rode in the industry averaged $20 Billion in profit, compare that to $120 Billion in 2007. *** you Bill Clinton!!
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 10:23 AM : Jun 11, 2008
Yep, because he''s so old that he married the first one by clubbing her over the head and dragging her to his cave. When he ran for office they needed to issue him an offical GOP airhead wife.
Rep. Blackburn Blames Bill Clinton, ANWR For High Gas Prices
By: Logan Murphy
We%u2019ve covered some of GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn%u2019s follies over the past couple of years, and she%u2019s given us plenty of chuckles. Blackburn is big on Republican talking points, light on facts, and guaranteed to make you want to throw your teevee out the window %u2014 so I was happy to see her speaking on behalf of John McCain%u2019s campaign this afternoon.
During MSNBC%u2019s coverage of Barack Obama%u2019s economic speech today in North Carolina, Nora O%u2019Donnell spoke with Blackburn about Obama%u2019s criticism of the disastrous Bush/McCain policies and on the topic of high gas prices, Marsha did what any good Republican would do %u2014 Blame Bill Clinton:
(CONT)
Posted by rwassel
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No I''m talking about you and all the others that is running McCain down. That includes Sargie boy also. I bet he has on his toy army suit.
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