White House Quashes Talk of Bush-Giuliani Ticket

White House officials want to squelch rumors of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani replacing Vice President Dick Cheney as President Bush's running mate.

MSNBC.com columnist Jeannette Walls on Tuesday quoted a "well-placed source" as saying "the issue of Cheney's health will probably be given as the reason" for his exit from the ticket."

Today the New York Daily News quoted a "senior Bush official" as saying the chatter about Giuliani was "the most ludicrous thing" he had ever heard.

"Let's think about this," said the official. "The president is going to shore up his conservative base by dumping a guy who's wildly popular with the base and replacing him with a guy who's pro-choice, a loose cannon and has no foreign policy experience?"

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel told the paper, "It's hard to imagine that anyone could buy into this two-year-old rumor, given his recent appearances in Iowa and New Hampshire during which he reiterated his dedication to the Bush-Cheney ticket in '04."

Sen. John McCain has also been campaigning for Bush, although his barbed comments about the president on "The Daily Show" last week indicate that their rivalry continues. But if you saw Dennis Miller's fine new show on CNBC last night, McCain's jabs at the spend-crazed GOP-controlled Congress show that he might be one of the few conservatives left in Washington.

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