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March 05, 2004

Who Will NOT be VP

Let me give you a list of Democrats who will not be the VP nominee-- those supporting Bush on tax cuts.

Baucus (D-MT)
Breaux (D-LA)
Cleland (D-GA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Miller (D-GA)
Nelson (D-NE)

These were the Democrats who voted yes on the 2001 Tax Cuts. (Carnahan and Torricelli voted yes as well, but I don't think either is likely to show up even in the VP mentions).

In 2003, Evan Bayh, Nelson (NE), and Zell Miller were the only Democrats to support Bush on his second round of insane tax cuts.

A basic rule is that if the centerpiece of Kerry's campaign is criticizing Bush's tax cuts, he can't have a VP who supported them, since "if your VP supported me, how misguided could the policy be." Bush is already facing problems hitting Kerry that hard on gay marriage, since people can point out that Dick Cheney basically supports Kerry's position of letting the states decided themselves.

Note that Bob Graham and the other Nelson (Fl), despite their somewhat moderate reputations, did not join in the fiscal insanity of Bush tax cuts, so should definitely be considered viable contenders in the Veepstakes. Bayh had avoided that insanity in 2001, but then unaccountably went with the tiny group that voted for the second round of tax cuts in 2003 in the first Senate vote, although he then flipped and voted against final passage-- a twisted pattern that maybe he can explain well enough to make him useful as a running mate.

Posted by Nathan at March 5, 2004 02:15 AM