Vice president? Doesn't want it. A run for governor? Quite possibly. Leaving public service for a new career in the private sector? That's appealing, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Thursday, in the midst of a three-day West Texas bus tour."Before I retire, I need to have financial stability," said Hutchison, 64, raising the option of leaving public service after being asked about the always-swirling speculation about her political plans. "I could certainly see another career in the private sector. ... I certainly would like to make money. I think I've given up a lot of earning potential being in public service."
Christ, as if we didn't already know that it's all about her all the time. So what's a politician who -- allegedly -- isn't running for anything except a huge payday after government work doing a on a bus tour of West Texas?
Is she actually out there selling wind turbines?"Say it's Hillary and (Sen. Barack) Obama," said political scientist Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. "I doubt the Republicans would want to put forward two white males."He said Hutchison is the only Republican woman in a high office who is well-positioned for the vice presidential spot.
GOP consultant Royal Masset said, "She's probably the most credible female we have in the nation."
It doesn't do for officeholders to look like they're campaigning to be vice president. But Hutchison sounds sincere about not wanting it.
"No. Nooooo," she said. "I do not want to be on the ticket for vice president ... I'm not interested in it. I don't want to be asked.
Since Kay also told us she would never run for a third Senate term, I'm having trouble believing this "nooooo".
Candidly, her best political option is to leave office, even though the appointment by Governor 39% MoFo to fill the unexpired five-and-a-half-year term would likely be a reactionary, fundamentalist conservative such as Lamar Smith. Or, God forbid, Henry Bonilla, who wanted the job in the first place way back when Kay was dithering over a run for the Austin mansion in 2005. My prediction is that she probably will "retire from public life" and go make a mountain of money, only to return in a few years to "accept the call from Texans for new leadership".
And we will all collectively vomit at that moment.
