Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Prominent Republican lobbyist and national party strategiest Vin Weber has ditched Sen. John McCain, whom Weber backed in the 2000 presidential campaign, and signed on instead with former Massachussets Gov. Mitt Romney, reports the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire.

Weber, a former congressman from Minnesota, was one of the earliest supporters of McCain’s 2000 presidential bid, but this time he'll be policy chairman for Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign team. Weber currently heads the prominent lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock and is influential especially with conservative Republicans.

Says the WSJ:

Weber’s opting out of Team McCain is considered particularly significant given his longtime association with the Republican Party’s leading economic conservatives, ties that that date to the early Reagan years. It suggests how fully McCain - and his 2008 candidacy - have come to be identified with the Iraq war to the exclusion of other issues. The war is increasingly unpopular with Republicans as well as independents attracted to the senator’s maverick effort in 2000.

Sorry, I don't buy it. McCain's problem isn't his continuing strong support for the war but his failure to stay conservative on a range of issues.

The WSJ says Weber, as Romney's policy chairman, "will have a say in all issues, not just economic ones." Weber is currently on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations and is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy.