Republicans try to shut down talk of becoming VP

PHILIP ELLIOTT

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Tag. I’m not it.

Repub­li­cans con­sid­ered to be up-and-comers are scram­bling to declare a lack of inter­est in becom­ing Mitt Romney’s run­ning mate, tak­ing them­selves off the still-forming short list of would-be vice pres­i­dents. With Rom­ney poised to win the GOP nom­i­na­tion in June, if not ear­lier, some of the focus has shifted to his pick for the No. 2 spot on the ticket. But no one is rush­ing for­ward and many of the top prospects are try­ing to shut down the con­ver­sa­tion before it begins.

“I’m not going to be the vice pres­i­dent,” Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

“If offered any posi­tion by Gov. Rom­ney, I would say no,” South Car­olina Gov. Nikki Haley told The Asso­ci­ated Press a day earlier.

“I’ve taken myself off the list,” for­mer Min­nesota Gov. Tim Paw­lenty said recently.

“It’s hum­bling, but I’m not inter­ested,” New Mex­ico Gov. Susana Mar­tinez said.

It’s not that bad of a job, is it? Well, it depends. John Nance Gar­ner, who was Pres­i­dent Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice pres­i­dent, described the job as “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” among other characterizations.

Part of the dance is try­ing to appear unin­ter­ested in the role of des­ig­nated attack dog and poten­tial GOP front-runner for 2016 if Rom­ney falls short in Novem­ber. Part of it is also pre­serv­ing a per­sonal brand; cam­paign­ing for the sec­ond slot and com­ing up short is embar­rass­ing, as Paw­lenty remem­bers from his unsuc­cess­ful effort to become Sen. John McCain’s run­ning mate in 2008. McCain went with Sarah Palin.

And, poten­tially, no one wants to play sec­ond fid­dle on a second-place ticket. If Rom­ney falls short in his bid to make Pres­i­dent Barack Obama a one-termer, the fresh faces in the GOP today would be tainted as losers head­ing into 2016.

Just look at Palin, the for­mer Alaska gov­er­nor. She flirted with run­ning this year but ulti­mately decided against it, given her divi­sive rep­u­ta­tion, lag­ging poll num­bers and sour mem­o­ries of the 2008 race.

Palin offered some advice to the nom­i­nee, whether it ends up being Rom­ney or some­one else:

“Don’t nec­es­sar­ily play it safe and do just what the GOP estab­lish­ment expects them to do,” she told Fox News Chan­nel, where she is a paid con­trib­u­tor. “It doesn’t mat­ter if that per­son has national level expe­ri­ence or not, they’re going to get clob­bered by the lame-stream media who does not like the con­ser­v­a­tive message.”

That may also be part of the rea­son why no one is rush­ing to join Romney’s team.

Posted by AP News on Apr 4 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.