Over at MyDD Scott Shields has a good analysis of what is going down at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference this weekend in Memphis. The SRLC is having a straw poll to test the strength of potential 2008 Republican aspirants to Bush’s throne. And John McCain seems to have pulled a jujitsu on Bill Frist. Rather than put his hat in the ring for a straw poll taking place in Frist’s homestate, he told attendees not to vote for him, but to vote for Bush. Of course, Bush is constitutionally ineligible to run for the Presidency in 2008.
“For the next three years,” McCain said, “with the country at war, he’s our President, and the only one who must have our support today.”
So, McCain solved the problem of a potential poor showing in the straw poll by asking his supporters not to vote for him. But, for good measure, he got his ally, Trent Lott, to accuse Frist of cheating.
“Frist is bussing people in,” Lott said, referring to Senate Majority Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), whose political organization is working to ensure he wins this unscientific early test of election viability. “These are not real delegates. These are people being bussed in to produce the results. It is a rigged deal. It doesn’t matter.”
That’s a double whammy. If Frist does well it is because he was cheating and if McCain does poorly it is because he wasn’t trying. And McCain makes it all look magnanimous by appealing to support for Der Leader in a time of war. This is brilliant stuff. If McCain keeps his game at this level, he just might be able to win the nomination.
