Will Dubya Dump Dick?

[candy331]

I hope this not a dupe but it sure is a good read.

Will Dubya Dump Dick?

By Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service
January 28, 2004

While Democratic rivals battle for the presidential nomination in a succession of grueling primary elections, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be fighting to secure his spot on the Republican ticket behind President George W. Bush.


The vice president, whose supposed moderation and 35-year Washington experience reassured Bush voters worried about the callowness and inexperience of Bush in 2000, is increasingly seen by Republican Party politicos as a millstone on the president's re-election chances in what is expected to be an extremely close race.


The reasons are for their worries are evident. Ongoing disclosures about Cheney's role in the drive to war in Iraq and other controversial administration plans reveal him as not the much-touted moderate but an extremist who constantly pushed for the most radical policies. But more than just an extremist, Cheney is also viewed as a kind of eminence grise who exercises undue influence over Bush to further a radical agenda, a perception confirmed by recent revelations by former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, who described Cheney as creating a "kind of praetorian guard around the president" that blocked out contrary views.


In addition, Cheney's association with Halliburton, the giant construction and oil company he headed for much of the 1990s and that gobbled up billions of dollars in contracts for Iraq's postwar reconstruction, is also becoming a major political liability. Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail are already using Halliburton's rhythmic, four-syllable name (HAL-li-bur-ton, HAL-li-bur-ton) as a mantra that neatly taps into the public's growing concerns overn Iraq and disgust with crony capitalism and corporate greed, all at the same time.


Reports of a discreet "dump Cheney" movement, launched by intimate associates of Bush's father (former president George H. W. Bush), were already surfacing two months ago. Cheney's detractors include national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former secretary of state James Baker, who now has a White House appointment as Bush Jr's personal envoy to persuade official creditors to reduce substantially Iraq's $110 billion foreign debt. Both men battled frequently with the vice president when he was defense secretary in the first Bush administration.


In addition to fears about possible impact on Bush's re-election chances, Scowcroft and Baker have privately expressed great concern over Cheney's unparalleled influence over the younger Bush's foreign policy, and the damage that it has wreaked on U.S. relations with longtime allies, particularly in Europe and the Arab world.

-more-

www.alternet.org/story

[grytpype]

1. Will Dick dump Dubya?

That's the question.

[many a good man]

2. Three years too late

Old #41 really should've had a talk with that boy...

[Bok_Tukalo]

3. While I believe Bush will lose anyway,

dumping Cheney would be the nail in the coffin. I do not see how such a major change in the ticket would not be an admission that the Bush Administration's harshest critics were right.

[pacifictiger]

4. its only a hearbeat away

[gmoney]

5. Cheney's just turned 63...

He just had a birthday and turned 63. I would have guessed at least 8 to 10 years older than that.

But I think Bush has already declared that Cheney's his running mate for 2004.

Remember, if Dick Cheney dies, that means George W. Bush will become president...

[agingdem]

6. I doubt it...

I've seen some Bush/Cheney 2004 bumper stickers.

[MurikanDemocrat]

7. Saw something on this a couple days ago

fighting to secure his spot on the Republican ticket behind President George W. Bush?? I thought he was the one in charge??

Somehow I can't imagine Cheney giving up the VP spot and the power he wields from where he's been sitting and calling the shots. i always thought he was a crook but thought Republicans had their heads buried in the sand and thought these two goons could do no wrong.

[mot78]

8. The * admin already responded to this article with a no

And if they do, I don't think they'll pick someone like Giuliani, as the media has suggested, because he'd alienate his Dixie supporters.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

9. Thread title sounds like a German hardcore porn video... n/t

JB