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01/28/2004 Archived Entry: "Is 'Bush-Cheney' about to become an inoperative phrase?"
Is 'Bush-Cheney' about to become an inoperative phrase?
The whispers are starting, and they're coming from some pretty big guns. Cheney's days on the ticket may be numbered
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 apparent moderation and 35-year Washington experience reassured voters worried about the callowness and inexperience of Bush during the 2000 campaign, is seen more and more by Republican Party politicos as a drag on the president's re-election chances in what is expected to be an extremely close race.
The reasons are simple: instead of the moderate voice of wisdom and caution that voters thought they were getting in the vice president, ongoing disclosures about his role in the drive to war in Iraq and other controversial administration plans depict him as an extremist who constantly pushed for the most radical measures.
He is seen as not just an extremist, but also a kind of eminence grise who exercises undue influence over Bush to further a radical agenda, a notion that was backed by the publication of a recent book about former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, who described Cheney as creating a "kind of praetorian guard around the president" that blocked out contrary views.
[...]
Reports were already surfacing two months ago that a discreet "dump Cheney" movement had been launched by intimate associates of Bush's father (former president George H W Bush) - his 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 US$110 billion foreign debt.
In addition to their perception that Cheney's presence would harm Bush's re-election chances, Scowcroft and Baker, who battled frequently with the vice president when he was defense secretary in the first Bush administration, have privately expressed great concern over Cheney's unparalleled influence over the younger Bush and the damage that has done to US relations with longtime allies, particularly in Europe and the Arab world.
I'm throwing the floor open for suggestions - who's gonna replace Cheney on the ticket?
(Link via Hesiod.)
Replies: 24 people speak up
Gulliani of course!!!
Posted by Nazgul35 @ 01/28/2004 01:21 PM NY
I'll go along with Nazgul35: Giuliani, definitely. There are two Americans who benefitted most from the tragedy of 9-11: Bush and Giuliani. They would be a formidable team.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 01/28/2004 02:31 PM NY
I'll buck the trend and say Baker. Loads of experience and sounds like he's already placed himself as a "moderate" and an administration "outsider" as well.
This has the potential to benefit the Dems - introducing an unknown into the equation. Maybe.
Posted by Charles2 @ 01/28/2004 02:42 PM NY
Powell
Posted by baconslab @ 01/28/2004 02:44 PM NY
Since political office has become hereditary in this country (as an aside, didn't we fight a war against that sort of thing one time?) I nominate Mary Cheney to replace her father on the ticket.
Plus they wouldn't have to reprint all those bumper stickers after all.
Heh heh heh. :)
Posted by Xan @ 01/28/2004 02:57 PM NY
I remember seeing a sign on CNN or something like that. I'm sure it was current and had Bush and some other name on it. I thought it odd that Cheney's name wasn't there. As soon I remember what it is or see it again I'll let you know.
Jason
Posted by Coujeaux @ 01/28/2004 03:48 PM NY
MSNBC rumored it be Guliani yesterday.
Posted by djhlights @ 01/28/2004 05:29 PM NY
The obvious candidate is the guy who came in second in the Republican primary in NH. Kerry.
Posted by Skinny @ 01/28/2004 06:28 PM NY
I think he going to get his brother to run on the ticket. By doing that he would assure his win in Florida, and maintain a dynastic succession in 2008.
Posted by Charles C @ 01/28/2004 06:43 PM NY
Benito Guliani.
Posted by mcf @ 01/28/2004 07:43 PM NY
Rice.
Posted by Old Fashioned Patriot @ 01/28/2004 08:55 PM NY
naw.. she's black and female. all the right wing nutballs won't be able to handle that
Posted by djdissent @ 01/28/2004 09:55 PM NY
tammy faye baker
Posted by myküll @ 01/28/2004 10:32 PM NY
Satan. He's only slightly more moderate than Cheney.
Raijin>>
Posted by Raijin>> @ 01/28/2004 11:25 PM NY
Doesn't matter - Bush is going down.
Posted by Thomas Ware @ 01/28/2004 11:50 PM NY
Let's get a little crazy. How about Zell Miller on a "bi-partisan" ticket. After all, Our Leader is a "uniter, not a divider." Do you think Rove and Miller are that ballsy? What would that do to the Dems in the South?
God, I hate that fucking Miller.
Posted by Patriotboy @ 01/29/2004 02:53 AM NY
I heard it through the grapevine: Tom Ridge.
Posted by Vicki @ 01/29/2004 10:20 AM NY
Whoever it is, they need to be groomable for the top spot on the ticket in 2008. That leaves out Baker (too old) and Rudolph (too unpredictable, remember he endorsed Coumo). How's 'bout Pataki? Or Mitt Romney?
Posted by RonV @ 01/29/2004 12:46 PM NY
Ridge.
Posted by skywalker77 @ 01/29/2004 04:41 PM NY
Holy Spiro Agnew, Batman! Is history repeating itself, with the corrupt veep first being dumped, followed by - dare we say it? - the Chimpster himself?!?
Stay tuned for the next episode, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
Posted by Realist @ 01/29/2004 05:19 PM NY
I'd suggest John Boozman (R-Ark)or John Doolittle (R-Calif).
It'd make for great bumper stickers:
Bush/Boozman
Bush/Doolittle
Posted by Scaramouche @ 01/29/2004 05:30 PM NY
I say it's the dead guy who beat Ashcroft.
Posted by Larry Dean @ 01/29/2004 10:59 PM NY
Oh, I hope it's Ridge. He's pro-choice, which piss off the base a bit, and he's completely lacking in charisma.
And what's his greatest accomplishment since getting his new job? That yellow/orange/red thing?
Posted by Tom Dissento @ 01/30/2004 04:51 PM NY
Rice...... in a landslide. (High approval ratings, universally respected, favorable media coverage, seen as serious/bright vs. smirky/chimp, neutralizes core Dem base, young enough to be Prez in 2008, even 2012, nat'l security focus = 'right person for the right time', none of the Halliburton baggage, and unlike Rumsfeld, not scary to children.)
MAYBE: Powell, for similar reasons (realist vs. neocon thang)
NOT, as speculated elsewhere:
Giuliani = personal life too messy, looks gross upon closer inspection
Liddy Dole = Doles & Bushes mortal enemies
Tom Ridge = nobody likes
Jeb Bush, G.H.W.Bush = too obvious, too obnoxious
I hate to say it but I think a Bush/Rice ticket would wipe the floor with almost any Dem pairing. Which is another way of saying, GO CHENEY, GO!!!
Posted by RedBat @ 02/02/2004 01:02 AM NY
