Rove Tried to Stop Lieberman VP Pick

John McCain would be wise to listen to Karl Rove. After all, the guy won two presidential elections:

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) late last week and urged him to contact John McCain to withdraw his name from vice presidential consideration, according to three sources familiar with the conversation.

Lieberman dismissed the request, these sources agreed.

Lieberman “laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call [McCain] on it,” said one source familiar with the details.

“Rove called Lieberman,” recounted a second source. “Lieberman told him he would not make that call.”

Rove did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rove wants Republicans to win and he knows what a disaster a Joe Lieberman VP pick would be for the party. He's still one of the smartest guys in politics.

It's looking more and more like Lieberman will not get the nod, mainly because the rollout schedule as announced by the McCain campaign would require the VP candidate to be involved in events on Friday after sundown, something the observant Jew Liebermen won't do. Unless he's willing to ignore his faith, he's probably not the nominee (thank Jehovah).

UPDATE: This probably rules out Lieberman as well:

Dodd said that Lieberman had given $250,000 to help Democratic Senate candidates win election this fall.

“He gave $250,000 to the DSCC a week and a half ago,” said Dodd. “He’s been very helpful to Democrats.

* * *

A Lieberman aide said his boss gave only $100,000 to the committee earlier this month and another $100,000 to the committee last year. Public records show that Lieberman also gave $30,000 from his leadership political action committee, bringing his total contributions to $230,000 for this election cycle.

Based on this, the delegates in Minneapolis should boo him out of the arena when he shows up to speak.