Dick, you’re doing a heck of a job

April 12, 2006

Just yesterday, I complained about narrow wish-lists in which the president’s allies explain how he can get “back on track” by following a series of series of simple steps. TNR’s Ryan Lizza seems to agree that the game plans from the likes of Lowry and Barnes are silly, but has decided to offer one of his own anyway.

I won’t go through the whole list, but I think Lizza does touch on one thing Bush could do that would make a big difference.

Fire Cheney. I believe historians will trace all of Bush’s problems back to July 25, 2000, the day he picked Dick Cheney as his running mate. The Cheney rollout was met by a slew of negative stories about Halliburton, heart attacks, and his Neanderthal voting record in the House (against sanctions for apartheid South Africa, for example). Ever since, Cheney has been at the center of most Bush screw-ups: the energy task force investigation, the policy battle over torture, White House stonewalling of numerous congressional investigations, the Iraq war, the intelligence failures, and many more. (Also, Cheney shot someone in the face.) Now Cheney is a recurring star in the court filings of Patrick Fitzgerald. […]

Cheney is the cancer at the center of the Bush White House. Bush has less than three years left in office. Most political forces — Republicans jockeying for president, the coming GOP losses in the midterms, the normal decline in a lame duck’s authority — are working against him. Americans are psychologically moving beyond Bush. The only reason to give him another chance is if he indicates he’s learned some lessons and is willing to make dramatic changes. Firing Cheney would do both.

Sounds persuasive to me. In fact, I’d add that firing Cheney, and having Bush find a new right-hand man to help guide him on policy matters, may actually change more than just appearances. If the president is sticking to a tragic policy in Iraq because Cheney has convinced him it’s right, for example, bringing in a new VP who is more in touch with reality might help the president better understand the crisis. Maybe.

I know, I know, Cheney’s not going anywhere. I also know, as I argued yesterday, that Bush’s problems are systemic and deeply rooted in the way this White House approaches public policy — or in most instances, doesn’t. But I have to agree with Lizza; dumping Cheney would be a good start.

“I believe historians will trace all of Bush’s problems back to July 25, 2000, the day he picked Dick Cheney as his running mate.” – Ryan Lizza

Hey, Ryan, Cheney picked himself! Bush just went along.

Frankly, I’d rather we just impeached Cheney. I know that he has committed at least one impeachable offense, and that doesn’t even get into the Haliburton frauds he is committing to pump up his stock options.

  • Cheney’s not even welcome by his fellow hunters anymore, having committed the capital offense of shooting a hunting partner while inebriated and then ordering the Secret Service to abet his attempt to cover up the crime (and a possible affair) for a day. I hope the Administration keeps him on, so we can parade that incident along with the Halliburton corruptions, etc., not to mention his wife’s pornographic writing.

  • I believe that as an elected official Cheney can’t be fired by the President. We have to go with impeachment if we want him out.

  • Firing Cheney won’t make a difference. Bush lacks the confidence of anyone & is only able to act using raw power (either real or concocted) rather than actually, you know, “leading.”

    Nornally a President who is incapable of leading would resign. Bush, on the other hand, has created an office where his power is limitless. So why fire Cheney? When you have unlimited power, there’s no need to heed public opinion anymore.

  • WaeverRose is correct – Congress has to remove Cheney. Of course, W can ask Cheney to resign to pursue other interests/because of health reasons, etc.

  • When you have unlimited power, there’s no need to heed public opinion anymore.

    And this is the heart of all my worst nightmares. There’s not a check or balance anywhere to be seen; even the Democrats duck and run on most issues.

    Some (most?) days, I just want to hide under my blankets.

  • I think Nixon’s VP was forced to resign for corruption. If Bush went public and asked for Cheney’s resignation, it would be pretty hard for Cheney to remain in office. It might save the Bush presidency if he did. Too bad Bush is so stupid and such a coward.

  • Cheney can’t be fired by Bush, but Bush could make him a traditional VP whose only responsibility is to ask about the President’s health every morning. Give him an office in a broom closet in some office building across town.

    Not gonna happen, of course.

  • I get a little tired of reading all the “fire Cheney” advice (we heard rumors about this prior to the 2004 convention too, you’ll recall), because it’s so patently obvious that it’s not going to happen. Cheney’s the one running the government, remember. The only way he leaves is if he dies, or his health deteriorates to the point that he (or Bush) has no choice. Otherwise, we’re stuck with him (barring impeachment, which is also very unlikely).

  • “…bringing in a new VP who is more in touch with reality might help the president better understand the crisis.”

    Unfortunately, the replacement would just be another party line douchebag. Besides, being in touch with reality is antithetical to the Bushite world view.

  • you know that over the vp’s office, people are telling cheney, “you have to dump bush if you want to save your presidency.”

  • Nothing will improve unless the Democrats take
    one or both houses back in 2006.

    The current administration isn’t about to make
    any changes that further our interests – only
    theirs, and that means making things worse, not
    better.

    You really want McCain? I don’t think so.

  • I think Cheney has been there for a reason: To be the lightning rod. Face it, Bush has had daddy’s friends helping him through every aspect of his life. Why not with this job. If Cheney can keep the attention/criticism on himself, then it keeps up the appearance of Bush being “above it all,” “the outsider,” “the regular guy.” Cheney is there to deflect for Bush and to cover for him. (Remember the executive order allowing Cheney to declassify info?)

    Besides, do you really think that Cheney would let Bush fire him?

  • Dick Cheney is George W. Bush’s albatross. Don’t you dare remove him from hanging around Georgie neck. If Bush is free of Cheney, the MSM will attempt to rehabilitate the “Moron-in-Chief.” We can’t let that happen; it’s a golden opportunity to destroy the VRWC for decades. We must let Cheney drag down Bush; and in turn, have Bush drag down the conservative movement(s).

  • Fellow baggers, I have to say that I find this kind of talk quite infuriating. Yes, Dick is an ugly, evil, evil man with no humanity who should stand trial for what he’s done to harm our country, if not enrich himself in the process. But the presumption here is that the moronic Bush is some kind of victim who could somehow be redeemed if only Cheney wasn’t really “running the government.” Bush is just as evil as Cheney (and more morally culpable), in my estimation–you just have to ladle on an extra dollop of stupidity hypocrisy and laziness. HE is the pRESIDENT! Everyone serves at his pleasure and, believe me, even a craven moron knows when he’s lying and sending people to their deaths–even if you subscribe to the theory that he’s blissfully, amiably unaware of the myriad other ways he’s running the country into a ditch. This is the BUSH administration and the buck stops with him. Current voters and historians should NOT give this guy a pass. If he didn’t want to or couldn’t be held responsible he should never have run for president. But he did because he knew he could thoughtlessly rape the country for his and his cronies’ pleasure and not have to do a day’s real work. Too bad. BUSH is the real criminal here, the enabler of Cheney and Rumsfeld, and Condi and Wolfie and Brownie and the lot. Letting Cheney become the focus of our scorn (even though he’s guilty too as hell) makes it seem like the little prince just tragically got bad advice. No, the heart of this administration–BUSH–is rotten and the only way to make people see the enormity of the intentional crimes being committed against our country is to identify it as such.

  • If Bush were the sort who could benefit from Cheney’s departure, he’d have already dumped him. If, for the sake of argument, Bush could be forced to get rid of his veep, he’d pick a replacement just as bad, and even perhaps young and healthy enough to become a potential successor.

    Bush is incapable of making decisions that a good President would make. Bringing on, and keeping, Cheney were two run-of-the-mill bad Bush decisions. Any VP replacement pick Bush would make would be a bad decision as well, and would neither help Bush nor the country as a whole.

  • Judging by the way in which Bush and Cheney have responded to the Congress, the courts, and the press, if there was ever a sustained movement to impeach either of them, they would simply ignore it, or say that it doesn’t apply to a “wartime Presidency.”

    Never forget that Cheney picked himself to be the Veep. And then he and Bush got into the White House by cheating, after they actually lost. And in ’04 they were “re-elected” in similarly shady circumstances. Cheney doesn’t consider himself accountable to anyone…because no one ever voted him into office to begin with.

  • Is the subject changed yet?

    First it’s illegal immigration. That’s war on immigrants. Now it’s WMDs, nukes no less in Iran. No, no, not immigrants, war with Iran. And there are echoes of wars of the future. On “Hardball” Gov Romney, R-Mass announced war on gays. Give them time. They’ll get this failed administration back on track. They need to find themselves a new LIE to make people believe, have faith.

    Faith – the active ingredient in the con.

  • “The only way he leaves is if he dies, or his health deteriorates to the point that he (or Bush) has no choice.” (#9)

    There’s always hope.

  • i see a lot these days about “firing” Cheney.

    certainly getting rid of Cheney would raise the average iq in the white house

    (and getting rid of bush would do even more for that already historically low number).

    but v.p. Cheney is an elected official.

    he does not serve at bush’s pleasure,

    but at ours.

    he is a constitutional officer, isn’t he?

    one of the most destructive things about the american right wing is how cavalierly they treat american political custom, political law, and the u.s. constitution.

    i don’t think we opponents of bush/Cheney should go along with any part of that radical approach just because it suits our prejudice.

    if enough people think Cheney is incompetent or dishonest in a major way (high crimes and misdemeanors),

    he should be impeached.

    that’s the constitutional route.

    of course bush can push Cheney out.

    but how would that help american government in the long run?

    the problem for american and the bush presidency is not Cheney.

    Cheney just had the knowledge in detail of how washington worked which bush did not have in jan 2001.

    the problem for american is that bush has repeatedly gotten away with the excuse that he did not know or did not understand something done in his name.

    an american president is expected to know,

    expected to find out if he does not know,

    expected to understand issues in detail before he makes judgments.

    Cheney is not bush’s problem.

    george bush’s problem

    and american’s problem

    is a monumentally incompetent president

    george w. bush —

    not very bright,

    extremely inarticulate for an american president,

    lacking in historical and diplomatic knowledge

    lacking in any interest in sitting down with other american politic ans and working out a deal that benefits all.

    any political system, no matter how solid appearing,

    depends entirely on the tolerance and consensus of those governed and those doing the governing.

    my personal feeling is that we do not need to introduce any more instability into American national politics right now by encouraging bush to fire Cheney.

    impeach Cheney?

    fine.

    fire him?

    bad constitutional idea.

    hold bush entirely accountable in the upcoming congressional elections?

    best constitutional idea of all.

  • “if there was ever a sustained movement to impeach either of them, they would simply ignore it, or say that it doesn’t apply to a “wartime Presidency.” ” – Johnny B

    I would hope that the Secret Service would simply escort Bush out of the White House and Cheney off the grounds of the Naval Observatory.

  • I think Gracious has hit upon an idea….

    Nixon’s VP—Spiro Agnew—had to resign in 1973 due to Federal income tax evasion. So—what would happen if people started investigating Cheney’s financial dealings? Let’s see…possible tax evasion…money laundering…war profiteering…this could become ver-rrrrr-y interesting….

  • Cheney (turn on all the tvs to Fox News) was a hard working successful corporate executive. Bush (turn off the tvs) was a lazy business flop. Cheney’s idea of governing is to exploit the presidency to enrich the big money stockholders. Bush’s idea of governing is to turn things over to “hard workin'” cronies and take lots of vacations.

    Bush and Cheney are symbiotic relationship. A hard workin “enforcer” SOB lurking in the background to allow Bush to be Bush and keep short hours and still have a short leash on Republicans. Cheney gets a free hand and Bush gets free time.

    Bush uses others to take over the burdensome and complex chores of being president. that are beyond his capacity or interest. Bush’s brain is a composite of plug in units including Rove and Cheney.

    If Cheney were to leave, Bush would be disabled like HAL the computer in the movie 2001 when Dave pulled out the circuit boards.

  • I think that Bush is unable to fire Cheney because Cheney has the goods on Bush. Cheney might be mean & vendictive but he is not stupid. If you examine his history, and I don’t claim to be an expert on that, his character is one of underhandiness, meaning he has protected himself at all times. I would certainly expect that if he went down, Bush would go with him.

  • Sorry, but Bush doesn’t have that kind of power in this Administration. Perhaps he should ask Cheney to fire Cheney.

  • Agnew resigned because Nixon pushed him out (constitutional officer or no). Agnew himself was a political cipher, with no separate power base within the party. Agnew’s separate-from-Watergate scandals were too much to deal with, and the Republican congressional leadership at the time (with its quaint notions of separation of powers and oversight responsibility) needed a credible successor in place in case Nixon had to leave. So they forced Nixon to accept Ford.

    The current situation is quite different. The modern Republican party is a single, corrupt authoritarian unit. There’s no possible alignment of forces within it to push out Cheney. The whole thing must collapse together.

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