From Jonah's Lips to God's Ears

Yesterday, I fantasized about McCain running on a unity NeoCon ticket, a ticket that would be a political windfall for the Libertarian Party. Today, NRO's Jonah Goldberg calls for the very same thing:

Meanwhile, a national-unity ticket would, among other things, expose Obama’s fraudulent claims to be a post-partisan uniter and reformer. The party-line, left-wing Democrat has done almost nothing in his short political career to support either claim. He is a product of the profoundly corrupt Chicago machine, not an enemy of it. And his definition of bipartisanship amounts to welcoming the unqualified support of Republicans who support his liberal agenda. The most liberal member of the Senate in 2007, according to National Journal, wasn’t even a member of the bipartisan gang of 14.

Such a daring move on McCain’s part would also signal that the country might enjoy a timeout from partisan rancor. Even the Obama-sycophantic mainstream press would have to admire such a profound gesture. The benefit for Republicans might be substantial. The party could rightly claim to have the bigger tent and the stronger commitment to serious reform. And for movement conservatives, the next four years could be a time for much-needed rebuilding. Obviously, a Joe Lieberman or Sam Nunn would not be the presumptive front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2012. And the lack of an heir apparent would encourage a healthy and vigorous debate for the future of the party.

I sure hope Mr. McCain reads Jonah Goldberg's editorials. For one, if McCain picks Joe Lieberman as his running mate it will tear the GOP asunder. The pro-lifers, (remaining) fiscal conservatives, and foreign policy realists will walk out the party in disgust; the GOP will be left in a pile of rubble, eaten from the inside out by NeoCon termites. And after a disastrous loss in the fall, they will be looking for new leadership. A second reason I yearn for a unity NeoCon ticket is that it will serve as a realigning event: the new paradigm will be the war party vs. the (relative) peace party. When the GOP is stripped of its attractive facade of pro-lifers and fiscal conservatives, it will be seen as nothing more than the ghoulish monstrosity that it is: a collection of warmongers, corporatist hacks, and shills for the redistributionist state. Post '08, the GOP (or a successor party) would have to re-build a coalition of freedom-minded individuals.