John McCain, the conventional wisdom goes, doesn't have a chance of winning the White House unless he shores up support among the conservative GOP base. One way to help do that, writes Pat Toomey in today's Wall Street Journal, is to choose a "true-blue fiscal conservative" ans his vice presidential running mate. Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and the president of the Club for Growth, lists several possibilities, including Indiana's Mike Pence:
Over seven years in Congress, the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee has established himself as a principled, determined conservative. An active defender of political speech, Mr. Pence voted against McCain-Feingold campaign-finance restrictions and led the fight against the ironically named Fairness Doctrine, designed to limit the speech of conservative talk radio. On taxes, Mr. Pence has been a strong proponent of tax cuts, calling the death tax "an economic growth killer." Mr. Pence opposed the Republican-backed Medicare prescription drug bill, calling it "the beginning of socialized medicine in America." Instead, he introduced the Small Business Health Insurance Act to make it easier for small businesses to purchase health insurance.
Kinda cool. Of course, the last time Indiana had a sitting vice president . . .
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McCain has already floated Lieberman as a potential veep. He will also likely consider Huck for the religious conservatives.
For someone the conservative base doesn't like McCain is sure getting an awful lot of votes from republicans.
But more neoconservatism is precisely what the country DOES NOT need more of.