Is Karl Rove using the Bush playbook in the McCain campaign?

It was remarkable enough when word spread that Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain was thinking of naming ex-Democrat Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Lieberman was a Democrat for most of his life. In fact, he actually was Al Gore's choice for vice president in 2000. But after a brush with political death in 2006, the Connecticut senator switched to Independent and won reelection. Lately, he's been campaigning for McCain.

Now comes word that Karl Rove, the political guru of the Bush presidency, is making calls trying to discourage the Arizona senator from giving in to these maverick instincts to blow up the political landscape by naming an ex-Democrat.

According to Politico, Rove called Lieberman and asked him to dissuade McCain from such a scheme. And according to the article, Lieberman "laughed at the suggestion and certainly did not call." Later, Rove told Fox that he did not ask Lieberman to corral his pal McCain. But he did not deny calling Lieberman.

Which means, if true, that Rove -- the architect of two Bush victories, sometimes called "Bush's Brain," the man who leaked a CIA agent's name to discredit her antiwar husband, a staffer who left the White House in 2007 and is supposed to be sitting out this election -- is in the thick of it.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: George Bush and Karl Rove. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Comments

[Austin]

Gracious... and the stones keep coming. it's getting a bit silly w/all these assumptions. And who the heck really cares? There's people from all sides giving their recommendations. One of which is George Clooney calling Obama to give advice, an actor ... giving advice. Do I care ... no. Why does this matter?

[Mattsky]

Richard Armitage was one that leaked the CIA agents name. Armitage even admitted to being the source of the CIA leak.

[Peter Hansen]

speaking of assumptions, if Barak eats babies at his speech tonight, he might lose the election...

[thebob.bob]

Rove knows that a Jew on the ticket will alienate the conservative right-wing evangelicals. They may want all the Jews back in Israel for the second coming and the rapture but they sure wouldn't tolerate a Jew as President of their "Christian" America. If anything happened to old man McCain, that's just what they'd have. Rove's no dummy he knows it and is making sure it won't happen.

[JamesJohnson]

The GOP has lost its soul and it has lost its way. Carl Rove, the despicable liar, is one of the major reasons why the party has become a shrill chorus of JEER, FEAR, and SMEAR! Do the American people really want these tiresome elitist and liars in the White House for four more years? John McCain made his great mistake when he got teamed up with the Carl Rove crowd of lying ' SMEAR ARTISTS'. John McCain represents nothing more than four more years of failed foreign policy and failed domestic policy. Give John McCain a ticket to ride and it will be four more years of BUSH 'seat of the pants' YEEHAW administration all over again! Let us have NO MORE of the lying. No More of the failed policies of yesterday and yesteryear. No more of Carl Rove and John McCain! VOTE THEM OUT!

[Mattsky]

James Johnson you haven't followed the last 8 years very closely. McCain was a thorn in Bush's side a lot of the time. Do you remember him going at it with Rumsfeld? You want to talk about shrill? You your own post.

[SWMIssouri]

Mattsky...Ok...yeah...sure...despite all evidence...yeah...OK...whatever the Bush's say must be true.

[pekopper]

Hey Rove and his fellow vampies are Nazis and Fascists of the worse kind. Most of the cancer that's taken over the GOP needs to be put on trial and jailed. (at the very least)

[Mattsky]

Despite what evidence SWMIssouri ? You have to do better then just making stuff up.

[bob]

One of the most evil men on the face of the earth is Karl Rove. He tries to come off as innocent every night on the pro McCain network FOX but is very much in the thick of it all. The american people aren't that stupid!

[SWMIssouri]

How about Bushes boy McClellan's own book that states that it came from and was directed by Cheney's own office. How about the testimony in the Libby trial? Exactly what evidence are you looking for?

You can blame Armitage as a matter of course to deflect the point. But just because he was the first to speak doesn't mean that Cheney's hand isn't all over this.