Governor Ed Rendell’s visit to California this weekend with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to speak at an event with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has writers and politicos speculating that Fast Eddie is pole-positioning as a potential running mate for Bloomberg if — big IF — Mayor Mike decides to do a last-second hat-tossing into the 2008 election as an independent. Where is this coming from? Nobody knows.

Rendell’s press secretary, Chuck Ardo, has been reciting a “much ado about nothing” quote to practically every newspaper in the country, insisting that the Guv’s upcoming hang with Bloomberg is nothing more than just good ol’ fashioned wonkery — a talk about “political infrastructure” in front of a captive audience.

Ardo tells the Daily Examiner he has no idea where or how all of these VP rumors sprouted: “It could not be further from the truth,” he says. “One would’ve thought that the fact that the governor has stated over and over and over again that he has NO intention of running again for any office might have dampened the speculation.”

Ardo, a little exasperated by all the calls he’s getting about the story, spelled it out: The meet-up has been in the works for a long time. The three of them chose L.A. to do it because “that’s the easiest location for all of them to meet.” (Hmm …)

And, one more time, Chuck, just for craps and Cheetos: Do you know why these rumors have started? Do you think it’s because some of the political power players want these guys to run? Do you think Ed is just that beloved across the country?

“I couldn’t even begin to speculate on the speculation,” he says.

Of course not.

Rendell for VP? [PennLive]

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Governor Ed Rendell, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by A.J. Daulerio on 1/17/08 in Governor Ed Rendell, Politics