Dick Morris was once a hotshot consultant who was eagerly sought out by politicians from Bill Clinton to Vincente Fox. Now he’s been reduced to writing columns for the lightly-regarded NewsMax.com. How the mighty have fallen! The major reason for Morris’ downfall is that he’s just been wrong too many times.

Morris is the guy who missed the boat in 2003, saying that he “didn’t give much” for John Kerry’s chances of beating Howard Dean in the Democrat Party’s presidential primaries and predicted that Dean would roll over the opposition to face President Bush in the general election.




In 2005, Morris stepped in it big time when he wrote that Jeanine Pirro “has to be Hillary’s worst nightmare” in Clinton’s 2006 Senate race. That nightmare morphed into a pipe dream when Pirro withdrew from that race to run for New York’s Attorney General. Ironically, it was Swami Morris who opined that it would be Hillary who might be the one to drop out of the contest.

Here’s another Dick Morris turkey: “Hillary Clinton will cause the stock market to crash as her likely election as president approaches.” Wow. Just wow.

In February of this year, Morris predicted, “Clinton’s strength among California Asians probably means she’ll win Hawaii.” Wrong, again, Toe Man. Obama whipped Sen. Clinton in a crushing 76-24 landslide in the Aloha State.

Looking back on what Morris has said would come to pass, we see a “whole lotta wrong.” One would think that someone who supposedly knew the Clintons so well as Morris claims to would have a better track record when it comes down to seeing their futures, wouldn’t one? Perhaps Morris’ crystal ball is all worn out and needs to be traded in on a new model. Here’s a better answer from Politco’s Jonathan Martin:

[Morris'] record of predictions since leaving the Clinton fold has been decidedly mixed, his judgment possibly warped by intense feelings about Hillary Clinton.

Morris also has “intense feelings” about Mitt Romney. He’s been arguing against Romney as a VP choice for John McCain since the Arizona Senator emerged as the likely GOP presidential nominee. The latest such argument by Morris is here.

I won’t waste your time and mine by quoting excerpts from this anti-Romney rant, but I will point out that whiule dissing Romney, Morris argues for such over-the-top VP possibilities for John McCain as Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Joe Lieberman and Mike Huckabee.

Morris must not have gotten the memo about Secretary Rice:

Condoleezza Rice wants it known: She is still not interested in being vice president.

-snip-

Rice, in a recent interview with the Washington Times, claimed no interest in being vice president after nearly eight years in Washington and a year as a campaign adviser to then-Gov. George W. Bush. She said it was time for “new blood.”

-snip-

As Bush’s national security adviser in the first term, she is closely identified with the Iraq war — at a time when Sen. John McCain, a war supporter, is trying to distance himself from the administration’s foreign policy approach.

As for Colin Powell as a potential running mate, he hasn’t even made up his mind whether he’ll vote for McCain, much less endorse him. And Powell has made it clear many times over the years that he’s not interested in the job:

Former Secretary of State and four-star general Colin Powell said this evening he has no interest in running for vice president should presumptive Republican nominee John McCain ask him, as has been speculated recently in media reports.

“I am not interested in political life, and I am not a candidate for any office,” Powell said at a small news conference.

Joe Lieberman has been there, done that, and he would only hurt MCain with conservatives, a group which the GOP’s likely presidential nominee doesn’t need to anger any more than he already has. For that reason, Robert Novak said:

Joe Lieberman is the absolutely unacceptable candidate for the Republican Party.

The final name on Morris’ bizzare list is Mike Huckabee. Morris and Huckabee have maintained their close ties since the former was first a client of the latter. But Huckabee would be a poor choice for McCain:

The problem with Huckabee is that he is not conservative. When Huckabee won the Iowa caucus in January, conservative Club for Growth President Pat Toomey declared, “Huckabee’s win in Iowa is a temporary setback for conservatism.” The former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania continued, “It often seems like Huckabee goes out of his way to anger the other elements of the conservative movement instead of courting them, dismissing his critics who believe in economic freedom and a strong national defense as members of the Washington establishment, Wall Street millionaires and secular elitists.”

Toomey predicted: “Huckabee is a fringe Republican and does not represent the conservative movement on economic policy, domestic programs, law and order, and foreign policy. It is hard to imagine a candidate so out of step with most in the conservative movement assuming the stage in Minnesota in eight months as its leader.”

Toomey is far from alone. Conservative talk-radio leader Rush Limbaugh declared Huckabee “not a conservative” during the primary fight. Although Huckabee struck an attractive populist tone, his solutions tend to be statist. It’s no surprise he’d run a big-government campaign: He was a statist as governor of Arkansas. The Libertarian Cato Institute gave him a “D” rating on fiscal policy when he was in Little Rock; spending increased at three times the rate of inflation during his tenure there. Further, Huckabee is a protectionist and proved during the primary campaign to know very little about foreign policy.

The case for Mitt Romney as McCain’s best choice for a running mate has been made, and made effectively, by conservative pundits Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Bay Buchanan and Ann Coulter, just to name a few. Conservative bloggers agree that Romney would be McCain’s best bet as a vice presidential pick. I’ve blogged the case for Romney as VP here and here.



Bottom line: Dick Morris, given his track record of being just plain wrong so often, and given his close connections to Mike Huckabee, is hardly a credible source when it comes to the value of Mitt Romney to John McCain as a possible running mate.

• JP