John McCain at Meet The Press. (AP Photo/ Meet the Press. Alex Wong)
by Mark Silva
Among the long run of weekend news clips, among all of the retrospective footage surrounding the celebration of a certain newsman's remarkable life, a few words jumped out - those of Arizona Sen. John McCain, nearing the end of a race with Texas Gov. George W. Bush for the GOP's 2000 presidential nomination.
"If he came to you and said: 'John, let's unite this party, I need you to be my running mate?''' Tim Russert, host of NBC News' Meet the Press, asked McCain on the March 5, 2000, Sunday morning program.
"I've said from the beginning, I would not, under any circumstances, consider being vice president of the United States,'' McCain replied. "I said that when there was eight of us in the race. I can serve the state of Arizona and the country far more effectively as a United States senator than I can as vice president of the United States.''
"Absolutely no way?'' Russert asked.
"No, no way,'' McCain said, turning to that wry humor of his. "The vice president has two duties. One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators. And neither of those do I find an enjoyable exercise.''
Memorable words, as McCain, the GOP's presumptive nominee for the 2008 presidential nomination, searches for a running mate of his own this summer.
The words, of course, invoke the memory of another Texan, John Nance Garner, who ran for president as a Democrat in 1932 and ended up joining Franklin Roosevelt on the party's ticket. Garner, who served from 1933 to 1941, described the job as "not worth a bucket of warm piss.'' (The quote has been sanitized in some quarters to read, "spit.")
The words may not have kept pace with the times, in which first Democrat Al Gore and more lately Republican Dick Cheney have redefined the potential and power of the vice presidency. In Cheney's hands, it has become a formidable force.
But all those people vying for a spot on McCain's ticket in 2008 may be mindful of the view that the candidate voiced of the office when he fell short of the presidential nomination. Russert, who died last week at the age of 58, had a way of soliciting comments such as these - and comments such as the characterization that McCain made of the race that Bush had run against him in 2000.
This, too, reminded us of an earlier time when all was not so rosy in the Republican Party's Rose Garden.
"Do you believe that George W. Bush has run an honorable campaign?'' Russert asked his guest on Meet the Press that Sunday in March 2000.
"I can't say that,'' replied McCain, who had been the target of multiple attacks. "I can't say that with the things that have happened. I'll support the nominee of the party. I will support him, but I cannot say that things like that... It's not a campaign that I would run, and nor would I ever want to look back and say, 'I ran that kind of campaign.'''
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OUR COMMITTED CANDIDATE
“I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T CARE”
I believe with all my heart and everything that's in me that if we decide to leave Iraq there will be chaos, there will be genocide and they will follow us home," McCain said. "I'm not prepared to let that happen. We cannot choose to lose. They should have let us win in Vietnam a generation ago."
What about the political consequences?
"I don't know, and I don't care," he said emphatically, repeatedly insisting that he would rather lose a campaign than lose a war.
His wife, Cindy, similarly brushes off the political consequences as she tells audiences that her husband is the only candidate she would trust to oversee the war to the end. "If we lose this race, it's not the end of the world. We have a great life; we have a great family," she said.
October 30, 2007
Posted by: JESSE | June 16, 2008 7:24 AM
When John McCain physically embraced Dubya and later took money from KKKarl Rove (Jerry White knows him!), McCain metaphorically sold his soul to the RNC store.
He should be ashamed of himself.
Posted by: Doug "Hussein" Zook | June 16, 2008 7:39 AM
so don't run that kind of campaign this year, then, John McCain. let's stop the mudslinging.
Posted by: swschrad | June 16, 2008 7:53 AM
At age 72, several cancers, plus that of his own soul, having received elite preferential treatment all his life, being a first class greaser to advance his own career at the expense of divorcing his first crippled wife to rich marry rodeo queen, who father bankrolled McCain's congressional campaign, McCain is hardly a upright, ethical Naval Officer, with his so called hypocrite for convenience code of honor and the rest of BS.
Posted by: Jerath | June 16, 2008 8:04 AM
he obviously overestimated bush. maybe we would have been much better off with mccain as vp. he probably would naot have formed his own intelligence unit at the vp office in order to cook intelligence about iraq. however mccain supports the war. so who knows maybe he would have capitulated to the neo-cons just like bush did.
Posted by: carmen | June 16, 2008 10:45 AM
Nothing of substance about what McCain said in the comments here. Just more sleazy attacks from Camp Nobama. Typical democrat BS "you run a clean campaign while we distort every word you ever said and attack your wife, age and where you were born in the most tasteless manner possible."
What McCain said is entirely right. The VP, with the noted exception of Dick Cheney, is a glorified placeholder for the administration. Remember when Clinton sent Al Gore to debate Ross Perot because he couldn't be bothered by the little weasel? Those are the assignments that await Mittens, Dodd and the rest of the hopefuls. There's possibly more upside on the republican side because of the very real possibility that McCain serves just one term but I can't imagine the prospect of 4-8 years attending funerals for Barack Obama is a good gig.
Posted by: Jeff | June 16, 2008 12:25 PM
Hey Jeff, I've certainly seen the Republicans attacking Obama's wife and where he was born, along with his parents, their religions, their relatives, where they chose to live, and his given name. Is that the kind of campaign the object of your worship, your perfect flawless demi-god John McCain stands for?
Posted by: JT | June 16, 2008 12:44 PM
Most of you wouldn't know John Nance Garner if his corpse fell on you. However, official records showed that he served as Vice President to Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941. When Lyndon Baines Johnson was offered the job of Vice President as Kennedy's running mate, Garner reputedly told L.B.J. that, "The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit" (although some sources say he said "pi*s" instead of spit.) And, indeed, unless the Vice President is appointed to a cabinet level position, his sole constitutional duties include presiding over the Senate, casting a vote in the Senate in the event of a tie, and waiting for the president to die. Attending funerals is an extra job the President might add to that list.
Posted by: John W. | June 16, 2008 12:46 PM
JT, you wackjobs in the left began attacking the McCains back in March so you have no leg to stand on with your indignation. As your own Messiah said "they bring a knife, you bring a gun."
John W., I'd say with the exceptions of Teddy Roosevelt, Johnson, Aaron Burr and Cheney the vice presidents of this country have done next to nothing in their official capacity.
Posted by: Jeff | June 16, 2008 1:00 PM