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FROM THE PHONE BOOTH: The Smallest Space in  Hollywood

	FINEFROCK

Have Some Veep Steak:
Where’s The Beef, ‘08
by Steve Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 8/7/08

How long is your list in the gamey game of VeepStakes for both parties? PajamasMedia.com is polling its visitors, and my choice has nabbed barely one percent of votes cast so far for the GOPster nominee for vice-president.  He’s first on the ‘ballot’ due to its alphabetical offering.  He should be first on all lists, and only lately began to show a bit o’ ankle, when appearing on Hannity & Colmes. Defending the oil industry was an interesting debut after a long stint in the wings of this year’s political pontifications about who should be our choice to march beside Mac toward the Oval.

He’s been party chief, a leader in the House GOP, managed fundraising for the party’s House members, and now re-elected governor in a southern state, with proven ability to handle Hurricane Katrina damage, proving there was at least one governor who wasn’t a blank-faced Blanco next door in Louisiana, or a naggin’ Nagin in NOLA [New Orleans, LA].  Before Katrina, he was gearing up for a presidential run, but that bit o’ meteorological wind took the wind out of the sails of Haley Barbour’s presidential yacht, and canceled the sales of his cred for leading the nation.

Yep, that’s the name that should be added to all lists, despite one of his key allies telling me this week that it’s not in the cards.  The stakes are high for this Veep, as Mac may not serve a second term – something he can’t say, and may not want to believe as probable. But it’s in the air, in the ether, in the very essence of presumptions. Thus, whoever is chosen his V.P. mate will be examined with prostate precision alongside Mac’s examination of cancer history.

Barbour displayed signs of likely presidential timbre a year ago on CSPAN, giving a brief speech that had all the markings of a ‘presidential’ effort – then the friend mentioned noted to me that indeed a ‘presidential’ was in prep when Katrina hit, and was thereby promptly shut down. A shame it was nipped by a big wind – Barbour’s CSPAN talk showed presidential potential and presence and gravitas in a manner not often seen. After all, as a House rep from Mississippi, he got little attention from the media, and serving as national RNC chair is often not on the front page. But his RNC service was a combat ribbon achievement, and along the way, that job enhances any rolodex.

Add a governorship, and re-elected handily, and proving he could manage Katrina’s ravages, makes Barbour prime cut for the veep steak that we need in this carb-rich environment of Barack and his seven-dwarf world of potential sidekicks.  Appearing on Fox for the first time in months showed a bit o’ that ankle, and he dodged the query about vetting for him – just barely denied it, “to my knowledge” he assured Hannity.

That one percent tally on PajamasMedia may get me a prize – if it were a pari-mutuel ticket, the payoff on a two dollar bet might be in the thousands. The payoff for the nation, should that veep take the reins in four years, would be in the billions, even trillions. Not to mention just plain leadership – and as a southerner, he’d show what the South has become. As a onetime party boss, he’d know the game from the inside. As a former House member, he knows the legislative branch – the ‘first branch’ of government, as the Article I branch as defined in the Constitution.

And as a governor, he’s acquired demanding executive experience in daily testing as the only one to decide [compared to legislators who share the burden of that branch], and knows economics from the ground up – two elements missing from Mac’s resume.  And in the psychology assessment, he’s as calm as smoke – unruffled, unfazed, untaxed by media mangling. Not that he’s experienced the full-anal exam of a national presidential tour of duty, but he’s as ‘prepared’ as any in the race for some time.

In either choice on the coming ballot, we’re getting an Oval Occupant who’s never had true executive leadership – only the third time in our history a sitting senator has taken the executive mantle of this Most Vital Nation. A Veep with steak on his menu of choices in leadership of three decades would enhance Mac considerably. Barbour would serve the VP’s  ‘attack dog’ duties well, with his smooth style and stiletto methods, he might bring a bit o’ the old Parliament insinuating insults which made Victorian England’s floor debates so entertaining, and charming, and biting.

With so many carbohydrates on the menu – including on the GOP side – I’m ordering steak. The red-plate special should have two stud puppies, one with combat leadership, another with daily duty as an enduring executive. That’s the kind of ‘balance’ that would serve the nation well – and the party too. And when his campaign duties require him to trim the stupidities of the left, it will be the Barbour Shop at work. Calmly, as quiet as smoke, and with the precision of Disraeli, Haley can hit a three-pointer on every shot in the VP campaign trail.



All as training for his rise to be the Oval Occupant four years later. That’s my two-dollar bet – a small investment in our future. ExileStreet

copyright 2008 Steve Finefrock

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