Matt Salmon

Matt Salmon discounted the seemingly endless speculation in the blogesphere that U.S. Rep. John Shadegg’s decision to leave the House was part of a double-secret double-switch plan that would thrust Shadegg into John McCain’s current office, if and when McCain leaves the Senate to pursue his presidential aspirations.

“That would be the most incredibly foolish way to do it. I mean it’s so much better – ask anybody who’s ever run for anything – to run as an incumbent and have the bully pulpit,” said Salmon, a former U.S. representative and Arizona Republican Party chairman. “That would be foolish.”