McCain Looks At A Republican Governor From The South For A Running Mate, But It Isn’t Perry

I’m not sure whether Texas Democrats should be breathing a sigh of relief or be worried over the latest news about who John McCain is looking at as a potential running mate. It’s a Southern governor, but it isn’t Rick Perry. It’s Perry’s colleague next door, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal:

John McCain will huddle with vice presidential aspirant Bobby Jindal during a trip to New Orleans later this week, sources close to the campaign confirm to The Fix.

McCain’s trip to Louisiana on Wednesday was the cause of much head scratching in the political world as it was not in keeping with a week of planned stops in battleground states.

But, the meeting with Jindal, who has been the state’s governor since 2007, suggests that McCain himself is deeply engaged in the process of picking his second-in-command and that the youthful Jindal is under serious consideration.

Needless to say, the news of such a neo-con as Bobby Jindal under consideration for McCain’s veep isn’t really good news–especially if McCain were to be elected president.

However, I think Texas Democrats can heave a massive sigh of relief that Perry is not on the ticket. Although conventional wisdom says that no Republican presidential candidate would be dumb enough to infest the Executive Branch with yet another Republican from Texas, we have to face facts: we could have come close–both with Rick Perry, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth).

Of course, with Hutchison wanting to run for Governor (her on-again-off-again Walter Mitty fantasy of the past decade) and unconfirmed rumors whafting down from Washington that Kay Granger is none too happy with State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) for putting in an early bid for Hutchison’s seat–since Granger had eyed it for herself, it is likely that even on the remote chance any of the pair of Texas Republican women were considered by McCain’s campaign they might bow out in favor of a potentially more “sure thing” in Texas in 2010.

Back to my point, Texas should heave a sigh of relief because, without a big-name Republican from Texas on the ticket at the very top, we finally have a chance to see exactly how “blue” Texas can shake out to be. Numbers have been skewed since 1994 when George W. Bush ran for governor and his bizarre “aw shucks” brand of popularity (and famous name) propelled him to the governor’s mansion. For years, all a GOP politician had to do to get elected in many districts was slather a photo of themselves with President Bush (and, if you were a lucky one like Bill Ratliff, a quote from an old video of a Bush chicken dinner fund-raiser where he praised you–or a passage he wrote in A Charge To Keep that mentioned you) all over their campaign literature.

God save us from Rick Perry becoming the next George W. Bush–or Dick Cheney.

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