CDS Virus Spreads
An offshoot of the more common, easily spread BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome), Cheney Derangement Syndrome is a rapidly propogating virus characterized by delusional thoughts that a hunting accident is an event of lasting import that may, in fact, bring down a Vice President, rather than the sort of minor tragedy that afflicts all of us from time to time. Although anyone can catch CDS, those with a predisposition to write at the Huffington Post or the New York Times are particularly susceptible (Bob Herbert today:“That was the moment when the legend of the tough, hawkish, take-no-prisoners vice president began morphing into the less-than-heroic image of a reckless, scowling incompetent who mistook his buddy for a bird. This story is never going away. Harry Whittington is Dick Cheney’s Monica. When Mr. Whittington dies (hopefully many years from now, and from natural causes), he will be remembered as the hunting companion who was shot by the vice president of the United States. This tale will stick to Mr. Cheney like Krazy Glue, and that’s bad news for the Bush administration.” – makes you hungry for the next Frank Rich column, doesn’t it?).
For more on how to recognize and prevent this tragic disease, please schedule an appointment with Dr. Goldstein…
Or those crazy progressive voices like Peggy Noonan and the Wall Street Journal, huh?
Fargus: I actually think there’s a fair amount of common ground between what O’Donnell said yesterday and Noonan said today–they’re both projecting onto Cheney without a shred of evidence.
I actually was going to include Noonan – but I come in on her article somewhere between the two of you – I took it to say she doesn’t believe the event in itself is very significant, but that it opens to the door to venting long-time frustrations with Cheney…
I personally have always thought that Cheney, while certainly qualified to be VP, would be a better appointee than electee. The general perception of him, true or otherwise, is that he is, at best, a grumpy old man. I recall a number of conservatives in 2004, myself included, were hoping that Bush would dump Cheney from the ticket to pick up someone with more voter appeal, namely Rudy or Condi. Of course, there would have been politically dangerous as well, and Bush would have been sure to garner accusations of opportunism. Now, however, Cheney has a chance to resign with a decent reason, and give a strong conservative who actually has presidential ambitions a national platform.
Peggy Noonan’s been cool to the administration for some time, so it’s not like she’s some slavish fan to begin with. However, my guess is that if there was a chance Cheney might resign so a presumed successor could be put in place before this incident, there’s less of a chance now. First off, there’s no obvious, slam-dunk successor – note that Noonan never puts up a name.
Second, Bush clearly likes to stick with those who stick by him. If Cheney resigned prior to this, it would be seen as an honorable departure. If he did it now, it would be seen as him getting ridden out of town. And Bush is stubborn, for good or ill.
Aha! But I thinked she hinted at a name – maybe I was reading too much into it, but I thought she ended with the mysterious suggestion of…Condi…
The guy from the New York Times has made the proclamation that this incident is to become Dick Cheney’s Monica (Lewinsky). Let us not forget that Monica was “shot at” as well; fortunately for her she avoided physical harm and received only a ruinous little stain on her dress. (Sorry Mark….I am not enough of a political guru to add anything of any substance to the conversation…)
So the logical conclusion is that there’s something about the White House which causes people to have bad aim?
Hey, Mason! Thanks for reminding us of that subtlety…
My guess is Condi would be her pick too, Mark. But the fact that she was coy about it makes me wonder if there was a reason she didn’t suggest a name.
I like Condi Rice, but I’ve never quite bought into the occasional bouts of Condimania. I have my doubts aout whether she’d be a great candidate.
If the Vice President does resign, it will be (at least nominally) for health reasons — and will have nothing to do with this nonsense.
Personally, I’d love to see Condoleeza Rice as the next Vice President — perhaps a year from now?
Just think about the difficult spot it puts every Democratic Senator in! If they vote against her confirmation (and recall that more of them voted against her confirmation as Secretary of State than against any other Secretary of State since 1825 — Henry Clay, if you must know) — a vote they’d lose — they are on record against both the first female Vice President and the first black Vice President. On the flip side, if they vote for her confirmation to the Vice Presidency, it’s conceding that she’s qualified to be President — which could come back and bite them in 2008. Beautiful. Plus she’d make a wonderful Vice President.
(For the record — back in the late ’90s, before blogging, I was vocal in my belief that Republicans were insane to impeach President Clinton. Had we succeeded in removing him from office we would have absolutely guarranteed that President Gore would have won reelection in 2000 in a landslide. Crazy!!)
To backtrack a little bit–obviously Noonan has a lot more going for her than O’Donnell, but what piqued my interest about the two pieces as companions is that they both projected their visions onto the Cheney situation without suppoting evidence–Peggy admits this freely, Larry had to have the thumbscrews applied by HH. I know she’s eternally annoyed that Bush isn’t Reagan–maybe she blames Cheney and wants him gone? Either way, this is about Noonan, not about the VP. Brett Hume said on the ORielly radio show that she’s “talking through her hat,” and he would probably know. Anyway, what is it about Cheney that makes him the perfect blank canvas for others to project on? It’s interesting.
In any event, he’s going no where barring a major health setback of his own. But because I love to speculate, as for alternate VPs, seems pretty obvious that Bush would offer it to Rice, who would either accept or would not. If she said no, he would pick from the Negroponte/Rumsfeld group. I guess George Allen would be possible, but I don’t see Bush picking an obvious 08 wannabe, but rather someone he is sure would continue his international doctrine.
[...] Who? See, you already forgot…he was the man shot in the face by Dick Cheney, with a resulting media frenzy almost beyond belief. Here was Bob Herbert of the New York Times in the aftermath of that scandal: “That was the moment when the legend of the tough, hawkish, take-no-prisoners vice president began morphing into the less-than-heroic image of a reckless, scowling incompetent who mistook his buddy for a bird. This story is never going away. Harry Whittington is Dick Cheney’s Monica. When Mr. Whittington dies (hopefully many years from now, and from natural causes), he will be remembered as the hunting companion who was shot by the vice president of the United States. This tale will stick to Mr. Cheney like Krazy Glue, and that’s bad news for the Bush administration.” [...]