The Case Against Joe Lieberman for VP

Bench Memos provides lots of good reasons why Joe Lieberman would be a terrible choice as John McCain's VP:

Senator Joe Lieberman would make a fine Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State in a McCain administration. But here are several (among many) reasons that he would be a terrible vice-presidential candidate for John McCain:

1. Lieberman voted against Justice Thomas’s confirmation.

2. Lieberman voted against Justice Alito’s confirmation.

3. Lieberman voted against passage of the federal partial-birth abortion ban—a ban that even usual pro-abortion stalwarts like Pat Leahy voted for.

4. Lieberman voted against all of these appellate-court nominations by President Bush:

Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit)

Janice Rogers Brown (D.C. Circuit)

Brooks Smith (Third Circuit)

Dennis Shedd (Fourth Circuit)

Priscilla Owen (Fifth Circuit)

Diane Sykes (Seventh Circuit)

Bill Pryor (Eleventh Circuit)

In addition, he voted against cloture on lots of appellate nominees, including multiple times on the unsuccessful nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit.

How could John McCain select as his VP candidate someone who is on record opposing many of the very folks who ought to be leading candidates for the Supreme Court in a McCain administration?

Selecting Lieberman would demoralize much of McCain’s base and would threaten to render hollow McCain’s strong statements on the Supreme Court and on abortion.

Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge would be the end of the McCain campaign. He's going to have to do better than that.