Ridge was playing a political game. The day before, Ridge disclosed Tuesday, he called Texas Gov. George W. Bush to say that would not accept the ticket's second spot because he did not want to be apart from his teenage children. Ridge and Bush say it was an innocent deception born out of loyalty. Democrats and some pundits are calling it a brazen ploy by Bush to look reasonable by dangling the moderate, abortion-rights advocate Ridge before independent voters even though he had no intention of selecting him. They never intended to run him.
Moderates ought to be outraged.
Partisan barbs aside, the Bush-Ridge account raises questions. Tucker Eskew, a Bush campaign spokesman, said Bush wanted to keep Ridge's name in the mix so that Bush could prevail on him to reconsider. For his part, Ridge suggested that he was being a good soldier. In addition to the Today interview, he talked about the job on ABC's This Week and Fox's The Edge. Also, during the National Governors Association meeting in State College from July 8 to 11, Ridge seemed to revel in fielding vice presidential questions.