A Blast from the Past: 2000 National Review Article on Ridge Shows Why McCain Should Steer Clear
By red oakster Posted in Archived — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This National Review article by John Miller from 2000 really lays out why Ridge's selection as the Veep nominee would cause an irreparable breach with conservatives.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-62241930.html
Here's an excerpt from the Miller article:
"Between 1984 and 1988, for example, he was more likely to oppose President Reagan's position on a given issue than he was to support it, according to a Congressional Quarterly analysis. In 1987 and '88, he aligned himself with the Reagan White House only 40 percent of the time. He supported President Bush somewhat more often, but he still lagged far behind the typical House Republican. Following a minimum-wage vote on which Ridge was one of only 19 Republicans to favor a hike, a reporter asked Pennsylvania congressman Bill Goodling whether Ridge had any friends left in Congress. "On our side of the aisle, he would have none," replied Goodling.
But, again, it was a tough district. If a Republican must cast union- friendly votes to hold the seat, Republicans argued, then so be it. Better that than a Democrat who won't stand with the GOP on anything.
Except that Ridge held a number of positions that can't be explained by devotion to his blue-collar constituents. At a time when Reagan was peeling off Democrats on Cold War issues, Ridge consistently played the dove. He voted to support the nuclear freeze, abolish the MX missile, deny funding to the Nicaraguan contra rebels, and adopt Pat Schroeder's plan to bar nuclear tests above one kiloton.
On funding for the Strategic Defense Initiative, Ridge wasn't just a "no" vote, but a leader in the enemy camp. In 1989, he teamed up with representative Charles E. Bennett, Democrat of Florida, in a Christian Science Monitor op-ed that criticized SDI as the sorry result of "a lot of dreaming." Ridge and Bennett then authored a successful amendment slashing the SDI budget from $4.9 billion to $3.1 billion. They struck again a year later, leading the charge to reduce SDI's funding to $2.3 billion. "The SDI mission continues to evolve-the leakproof shield is history," Ridge said afterward. Two years later, he was one of just eleven Republicans to support stripping another $1 billion from the program.
Ridge seemed to go out of his way to tweak Republicans. In 1996, he reminisced in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about how he "gave all those Republicans heartburn" with his various stances. Four years earlier, while still in Congress, he penned an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer blasting President Bush's "obsession" with a capital-gains tax cut: "About all it will do will be to churn the stock market and increase the profits of stock brokers and traders." That's not exactly the message George W. wants to convey to the investor class this year."
That McCain is even floating this name indicates his Veep selection "process" doesn't have its act together.
.....with McCain before they float names. McCain is on record indicating skepticism that any Republican could select a pro-choice running mate because of how at odds that would be with the platform and the vast majority of the Party.
If McCain means what he says (and he usually does), then Ridge can't possibly be at the top of the short list as he's clearly pro-choice and one might say stubbornly so.
This looks more and more like an attempt to test things in PA by using Ridge's name to see if he had an effect. I believe he would, but I also believe that a) Ridge would have a negative impact elsewhere, and b) McCain does not need Ridge to win PA - he can do it on his own merits, especially against Obama.
He likes guys like Lindsay Graham and Ridge because they flatter him. He couldn't stand Rumsfeld long before the US ran into trouble in Iraq because Rumsfeld wouldn't bow down.
Don't be so sure this Ridge trial balloon didn't come from McCain.
If I see McCain turn the VP selection process over to someone like Jon Kyl (in the same way Bush tasked Cheney), I would be reassured. But Ridge is so bad, it smells of the John McCain acolyte problem. McCain needs a better approach.
All politicians have a weakness for cronies and acolytes. McCain has a weakness for not being very perceptive at times.
...especially since he can then be tagged as "another Bush term".
Again, I think Sanford has to be on the short list, if for no other reason that he backed McCain in 2000 over Bush. A McCain/Sanford ticket truly would be a new direction.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”