Rush Limbaugh Hits McCain for Almost Leaving Party - TWICE
Interesting conversation on yesterday’s Rush Limbaugh show on where Rush talked about the article in the NY Times about how John McCain, not once, but twice threatened to bolt the Republican Party, and also the 2004 talk of running as Kerry’s VP in a “dream ticket” scenario:
“Senator John McCain never fails to call himself a conservative Republican as he campaigns as his party’s presumptive presidential nominee. He often adds that he was a ‘foot soldier’ in the Reagan revolution and that he believes in the bedrock conservative principles of small government, low taxes and the rights of the unborn. What Mr. McCain almost never mentions are two extraordinary moments in his political past that are at odds with the candidate of the present: His discussions in 2001 with Democrats about leaving the Republican Party, and his conversations in 2004 with Senator John Kerry,” the haughty Senator Kerry, who served in Vietnam, “about becoming Mr. Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket. There are wildly divergent versions of both episodes, depending on whether Democrats or Mr. McCain and his advisers are telling the story. The Democrats, including Mr. Kerry, say that not only did Mr. McCain express interest but that it was his camp that initially reached out to them” about being Kerry’s vice president, and McCain’s denying that.
But the Kerry camp says, “No, we got a call from McCain,” and you know that Kerry very publicly, proudly said that he was considering McCain. This 2001 business, I had forgotten that, but this is a result of how steamed he was over the South Carolina primary and losing the nomination to Bush in 2000. Remember, he had the Straight Talk Express? It was heading on down the highway? The reporters on it were having the best time, and so was McCain. Then the New Hampshire primary came along, and McCain aced it, but the whole thing got derailed in South Carolina over Bob Jones University and a couple of rumors some people put out about McCain. The point is, he was livid. He was fit to be tied. This is why some people still to this day think he’s got it in for the Republican Party. That’s why he crosses the aisle and makes deals with Democrats.
I think the point is more what the Democrats plan to focus on once they choose their nominee, more than Rush attacking McCain, as he alludes to here:
They better be aware what’s in store for them. Once the Democrats have their nominee and so forth, this is just a little, little bitty tidbit of… (interruption) Yeah, I know. There are stories about the Keating Five out there today, too. This is just a little heads-up about what’s coming Senator McCain’s way once the Democrats iron out their stuff and Operation Chaos has come to a conclusion.
And of course, he is right on the money with this comment:
But it’s still, all of this stuns me. It literally stuns me that a guy, Senator McCain, who spent years criticizing his own party and thought seriously about leaving his own party, is now the leader of it.
I’m with you Rush, I am still stunned that McCain was the last man standing and will be the nominee. I can just see the commercials now from the DNC, “John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, thought so much of the Democrat party, he almost became one.. twice and asked to be considered as a VP candidate in 2004.” UGH!
– ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx