Scalia was on Bob Dole's Short List

On Feb 5th's episode on Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel, Bob Dole mentioned that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was on his short list for Vice President:

DOLE: Great choice, yes. There are others. You could start making a list. And maybe Huckabee would be on the list. I don't know. I had Judge Scalia on my list. Probably shouldn't –
COLMES: Judge Scalia was on your list to be VP?
DOLE: I never contacted him.
COLMES: Is that right?
DOLE: Yes.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328525,00.html

It's a revelation by former Senator Dole that hasn't received much press coverage but it's very interesting, nonetheless. One thing is obvious enough, Dole was trying to make a splash with Veep pick back in '96. Jack Kemp never really measured up. Dole would have been better off pulling a Mondale and picking a women or minority that would have made history to generate news coverage and gain positive momentum from it. Scalia doesn't fit that bill but it'd be a first in the sense of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice vying to become Vice President. Justices are supposed to appear (at the very least) as apolitical. So it probably wouldn't have looked had Scalia been vying for the very political job of Vice President. And plus, I'm not so sure Scalia would have give up his lifetime gig on the land's highest federal bench. Nevertheless, it's a fun "what if" to think about.