Dec. 5, 2008
BETA
Blog Post - December 10, 2005
(redlined version showing NewsTrust degradations)
Senator Joe Lieberman in today's New York Times, regarding rumors that he might some day replace Donald Rumsfeld as President Bush's Secretary of Defense, said: "It's a total fantasy. There's absolutely no truth to it." Asked about the same rumor in this morning's Washington Post, Lieberman another interview, he called it a: "Washington fantasy."
What Lieberman left out, and the Post and Times either did not report, or perhaps did not even know, is that the Bush administration did apparently at one time include Lieberman on a very short list to replace former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as Secretary of Homeland Security.How serious Bush wasI've been told that Bush was serious in his consideration of Lieberman. Lieberman is perhaps only known by the President himself and a few senior advisors. (President Bush, Andrew Card, and Karl Rove don't return phone calls from this particular blog-- yet.)
The more salient point, however, is that theThe Bush White House let Lieberman know in a very serious sort of way that they were considering him for a cabinet position position. My sourcing regarding this are people with direct knowledge of the matter, including a couple of people on Capitol Hill close enough to Lieberman, and had and talked directly to him about it at the time. This fact is well known by political insiders and those who dispute it are misinformed.
And, for those who know Lieberman, he would have considered this more than mere flattery. One person who spoke directly to him said it would have been the perfect career coda for a U.S. Senator and Democratic nominee to be the Vice President of the United States for his party, to then be named to a major cabinet position in a Republican administration. Lieberman sees his legacy as being another Arthur Vandenberg.Vanden Heuvel. (Just read this speech.)
Would talkTalk of appointment as a cabinet secretary havehas colored his outlook on the Bush administration? and the Senator deserves to lose his job over it. But if he does, the turncoat Democrat won’t be on the unemployment line long, as he obviously can count on his friends in high places to give him a new one! Has Joltin’ Joe gone over to the dark side? Some enterprising reporter – if there is any left in America – should put the question to his Senatorial colleagues.colleagues in the Senate.
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Here is the link to the original version (this was not provided to survey resondents):
http://whateveralready.blogspot.com/2005/12/senator-joe-lieberman-in-todays-new.html