Change in Bush Running Mate Seems Unlikely

[nodehopper]

Very weirdly spun article...check it out if you have AOL news access...Sorry I keep posting AOL links, but sometimes they will have stories before they show up on CNN in a better articulated form...


Change in Bush Running Mate Seems Unlikely

By TOM RAUM, APAFP/Getty

WASHINGTON (Feb. 17) - Dick Cheney is only six years older than President Bush, but his long government resume and graying presence helped offset the Texas governor's lack of seasoning and foreign policy experience in 2000. Those same avuncular qualities seem less politically reinforcing now, with Bush facing a difficult re-election battle and Cheney, 63, burdened by political baggage of his own.
Allegations of profiteering in Iraq by oil services giant Halliburton, which Cheney once headed, and his frequent claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction have become standard Democratic targets.
Bush strongly backs the former Wyoming congressman, who served as his father's defense secretary and President Gerald Ford's chief of staff. But some Republicans are quietly asking whether Cheney will help or hinder the ticket among voters this November.

That has raised speculation about possible Cheney replacements. Among those mentioned: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee; Rep. Rob Portman of Ohio; Colorado Gov. Bill Owens; former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, now Bush's homeland security secretary; and two New Yorkers: former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki.
A recent Time Magazine/CNN poll showed nearly as many Americans think Cheney should be replaced as kept. Other polls show his popularity trailing Bush's by about 10 percentage points.
"Let's put it this way, I'd love to see Giuliani as vice president," said Jerry Roe, a Michigan historian and former state Republican party executive director. "I think Cheney's health could be a factor. And then add up all the negatives on the Halliburton thing."
Few expect a midcourse ticket correction. Cheney remains popular with the GOP rank and file and with social and economic conservatives who are increasingly uneasy about Bush's deficit spending and immigration-liberalization plans.


more here:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/elections/article.adp?id=20040217153009990001

[AngryYoungMan]

1. Fine with me!

Of course Cheney won't be removed from the ticket, for a simple reason that so many people (except Josh Marshall) seem to forget:

The way this Administration is structured, there is NOBODY who can tell Cheney what to do.

There is no overseeing aparratus around him. He is, in Marshall's words, "The living, breathing disaster" at the center of the Bush administration. When he assembles a team to do something, and the task fails, the underlings get fired while he stays on.

He doesn't stay within the White House talking points (WMD, etc) when he goes on TV for a simple reason: he doesn't want to, and nobody can make him.

The war, the tax cuts...it's all his fault. He is our hidden king. There are no restraints on him whatsoever.

The Paul O'Neill book shows how he has Bush in his pocket even more than Kissinger has Nixon in his.

Cheney will not relinquish power. Never, never, never.

[Wonk]

2. Me too. Related article: The day Cheney was rocked to the core

WASHINGTON - If United States Vice President Dick Cheney was hoping that the cold, crisp air of Davos and his private audience with Pope John Paul II late last month would revive his spirits, as well as  his standing in the polls, he must be deeply disappointed.

Since returning home, he has faced a seemingly unrelenting succession of disclosures and attacks that appear to get worse with each passing day. What the albatross was to the ancient mariner, Cheney is fast becoming to George W Bush's re-election chances.

Just consider what happened to Cheney Thursday: the early morning edition of the Wall Street Journal ran an article - first reported by Newsweek - on how Justice Department investigators had asked Halliburton Company for documents relating to US$180 million in allegedly illegal payments by a consortium of companies, including Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, in connection with the construction of a big natural-gas plant in Nigeria in the late 1990s, while Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive officer.

When the Los Angeles Times hit the news stands a couple of hours later, Cheney was right there on the front page with the headline: "Scalia was Cheney Hunt Trip Guest; Ethics Concern Grows." Antonin Scalia is a Supreme Court Justice who was Cheney's guest on a recent and rather costly (to the taxpayer) bird-hunting trip to Louisiana, and who also will soon hear a major case on government secrecy in which the vice president is the defendant.

more...
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FB07Aa03.html

[roguevalley]

6. I hope he stays. It will be a stone around their necks.

[Stephanie]

9. I absolutely agree with that

Cheney IS the administration. He's the whole show. He's not going anywhere. Dick.

[Fovea]

3. Cheney remains popular with the GOP rank and file and with social

and economic conservatives"

What utter and amazing bullshit.

By now, they all have read or heard the "deficits don't matter" quote
from O'Neill. By now, no fiscal conservative will be actually supporting Bush in their hearts. And I suspect that more than a few will go into the voting booth and simply not vote for President.

If you want to hear what the paleocons think of * and Crashcart.
go to cspan.org and check out Kevin Phillips interview on washington journal's archive. Mr. Phillips seethes with anger at the Bush family evil empire, and he does not seem to disagree with the idea of BFEE. This man was Nixon's strategist, get my drift?

Cheney and Bush better not be counting on the old Republican party to save them. I think Kevin and the Paleos have choked on the embarrassing wing of their party for too long. Now they are standing back and letting Rove see if he can win without them. The answer is no, but it would still be no with them. It is just that without them, it won't even be within faking distance.

[noonwitch]

12. The religious and gun nuts like he and Lynn

Lynn wrote that stupid history book for children, "A is for America". I can see her running the training center for handmaid's in "The Handmaid's Tale", or in the role of Faye Dunaway's character.

If things look bad for Cheney on the Halliburton front or on the secret meetings/hunting with Scalia thing, then I'd guess Bush would ditch him, but it would be for someone who is clearly on the right, to balance Bush's claim to being a moderate.

[radfringe]

4. shouldn't that headline read

Change in Cheney's running mate unlikely?
:evilgrin:

[nodehopper]

7. touche

[Piperay]

5. Good...

uncle dickie is a great target he's so corrupt and sleazy they'll really be plenty of dirt to hit him with. :bounce:

[Flubadubya]

8. I hope so...

The tons and tons of dirt surrounding the jerk really need to be dug up. However, the extremely low profile this nefarious no-gooder has kept is not without purpose. The media is much less likely to go digging into Cheney's dirty drawers when he is a virtual non-person on the political stage. Nevertheless, they do need to turn their attention to this most evil entity within the Bush crime family. There is much to be gleaned there. :puke:

[hang a left]

10. IMO

He is going down. Isn't there a closed door senate session tomorrow? I betcha that is when it gets hashed out.

[onehandle]

11. Told you folks Cheney isn't going anywhere.

He needs the protection of the White House to run his business interests without interference.

[trogdor]

14. Thank you!

Bush will need impeachment insurance, just like his dad. Besides, the Bushies value loyalty - both from themselves and from other people - so strongly they'd sooner crash and burn with the date they arrived at the ball with than switch.

If Bush I had DX'ed Quayle in '92 for someone with a brain in his head (oh, where to find one of those in the GOP?), he might have beaten Clinton, IMO.

[yellowcanine]

13. I think Bush will stick with Cheney

Chenwy would not step down gracefully and that would mean too much blood in the water. I would venture that Bush would be scared shitless to even suggest to Cheney that he withdraw.