Friday, July 28, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.
Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.
THIS WEEK Gov. George W. Bush selected his vice presidential nominee. Soon Vice President Al Gore will pick his running mate. Then next month the Democratic and Republican convention delegates will jump to their feet and cheer when their selections are formally introduced. This is the way it's done, and a majority of Americans evidently take the process as just one more political action written in stone.
The late Endicott "Chub" Peabody didn't view the process as sacred or even worth saving. The former governor of Massachusetts and key White House figure during the Lyndon Johnson years had his own solution. During some of his years in Washington I had the opportunity to work with Chub and enjoyed hearing his view of national politics. The former All-American football player and recipient of the Silver Star as a submarine officer during World War II never hesitated to openly express his opinions.
Peabody always believed that the person one heartbeat away from the Oval Office should have closer voter scrutiny. In 1972 I was one of the more than 100 delegates at the Democratic Convention who offered their votes for him as vice president. Some people saw it as only a convention gimmick because it had no chance for success. Peabody knew it wasn't going anyplace, but he wanted the Democrats to at least give it some thought. That's about all they did, and it was a fleeting thought at its best.
That was the convention that approved Sen. George McGovern as presidential candidate, and he brought along Missouri's Sen. Thomas Eagleton as his running mate. Delegates had only been home a brief period of time before Eagleton's past mental health problems were made an issue. He was dropped from the ticket and McGovern selected a popular Sargent Shriver for a disastrous ride to defeat at the hands of incumbent President Richard Nixon. Of course, we all remember how Nixon's second term ended.
What happened following the 1972 convention stuck in Peabody's mind and brought him to the front again in 1988 when GOP presidential candidate George Bush picked Sen. Dan Quayle as his running mate. He saw Quayle as a pending disaster if anything happened to President Bush.
In 1992 Peabody came up with a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He told the voters of New Hampshire, "Originally our Constitution provided for an elected vice president. Now, however, the vice president and president are on the same line of the ballot. Thus you can't vote separately for the potential heir to the presidency.
"While Americans deserve the right to vote, the president also has a right to a loyal vice president. My amendment considers both rights by allowing the president as well as the people, a voice in choosing the VP."
Here is the suggested 1992 Peabody Amendment:
"SECTION 1 -- Each state shall provide for a separate vote by the people for the Electors of President and a separate vote by the people for the Electors of Vice President.
"SECTION 2 -- If the person having the greatest number of votes of the Electors of Vice President, such number being a majority of the whole number of Electors, was not the nominee for Vice President of the political party whose candidate for President was elected by vote of the Electors or by vote of the House of Representatives, then that person shall not be the Vice President by virtue of that election. In that event, the person chosen President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress and after the person chosen President shall have taken office.
"SECTION 3 -- The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Chub Peabody is gone, but his ideas about selecting a vice president are again being discussed by political correspondent and author Victor Gold. Don't expect anything to change the selection system until a serious problem arises and the results affect our nation. In the meantime we will remain comfortable with a system that assures us everything is going to be OK.
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