VP or not VP: McCain reportedly leaning toward Lieberman or Ridge

McCain chats with veep heartthrob-of-the-hour Joe Lieberman and Ted Kennedy in April 2008.

Mike Allen and a pair of Politico colleagues just filed the story that’s bound to dominate GOP veepstakes chatter for the next day or two. They report that McCain has put the GOP on notice that he may choose against type on the matter of abortion rights to better his chances among moderates of both parties and independents.

According to the Politico story, the tactically erratic candidate is presently jonesing to make Joe Lieberman his number two. Former Pennsylvania Gov. and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, whom McCain all but expressly ruled out a few months ago in a Hardball interview,  is said to be back under the microscope as well.

Here’s the question that matters: Is this really something the Rove-ians now running the campaign — who can count segments of the electorate better than anyone, and are not tactically erratic — would actually contemplate? I have trouble seeing it; it’s too potentially disruptive of the Christian right base the campaign has cultivated so assiduously with its advertising of late.

And if Rove and his acolytes are willing to go there, it signals a pretty dramatic shift in their reading of the electoral map.