Veep Veep
[posted by Callimachus]
Bush says Rumsfeld, Cheney should stay.
Odd that that doesn't strike us as odd. Cabinet officials, yes, their heads always potentially are on the block. But a vice president in the same situation? And not at a time when the party is re-forming its platform for a presidential race? That seems new.
Yet clearly Cheney is and always has been a genuine policy-maker in this administration, more like a cabinet official than a Nelson Rockefeller or a Dan Quayle.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, to actually give the vice president something to do after delivering his home state's votes on November 7. The Constitution is vague about what a vice president is or does, outside waiting for the president to die.
The Founders lobbed some ideas back and forth in Philly in '87, and they clearly had some notions about it, but they never enshrined them in law. So Cheney's potent VP job isn't in the constitution. Neither is Cactus Jack Garner's "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
But they did give us the right to vote for the VP, which we let the parties steal away from us. That was an error.
Hell, I want to vote for everyone. I want to vote for president, and for vice president. I also want to vote for First Lady. And the kids. Like, George W. Bush for president, but definitely Tereza Heinz Kerry for first lady. What a hoot that would be! Chelsea Clinton and Jack Ford for the kids, and Billy Carter for Best Brother. That's my ticket.
Bush says Rumsfeld, Cheney should stay.
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain with him until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most-vilified members of his administration.
Odd that that doesn't strike us as odd. Cabinet officials, yes, their heads always potentially are on the block. But a vice president in the same situation? And not at a time when the party is re-forming its platform for a presidential race? That seems new.
Yet clearly Cheney is and always has been a genuine policy-maker in this administration, more like a cabinet official than a Nelson Rockefeller or a Dan Quayle.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, to actually give the vice president something to do after delivering his home state's votes on November 7. The Constitution is vague about what a vice president is or does, outside waiting for the president to die.
The Founders lobbed some ideas back and forth in Philly in '87, and they clearly had some notions about it, but they never enshrined them in law. So Cheney's potent VP job isn't in the constitution. Neither is Cactus Jack Garner's "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
But they did give us the right to vote for the VP, which we let the parties steal away from us. That was an error.
Hell, I want to vote for everyone. I want to vote for president, and for vice president. I also want to vote for First Lady. And the kids. Like, George W. Bush for president, but definitely Tereza Heinz Kerry for first lady. What a hoot that would be! Chelsea Clinton and Jack Ford for the kids, and Billy Carter for Best Brother. That's my ticket.
