Is this wishful thinking on the part of Republican leaders or as
the Village Voice put it, "The latest wacko campaign rumor
circulating from Shrub haters…?" [See Internet Rumor Says
Cheney to Bail. Yeah, Right.]
The way the unsubstantiated tale is being told is that Cheney,
whom the GOP bigwigs see as spelling disaster for Bush, will
step down for health reasons a few weeks before the election
and be replaced by either John McCain or Colin Powell.
It sounds crazy, right? But does it in this most surreal of
presidential elections? So let's weigh it:
1. It would be one hell of an October surprise and if
the Republicans are good at anything, it's October
surprises.
2. Bush and Cheney both are multi-millionaire oilman
whose greatest support comes from the oil industry.
Perhaps it has dawned on the GOP that the electorate
might buy one oilman, but not two.
3. Cheney's residency could prove a problem. Before
Bush tapped him to be his running mate, Cheney's
legal domicile was Texas, the same as Bush's. While
Cheney rushed back to Wyoming -- where he had
lived before becoming CEO of Halliburton Company
and moving to Dallas -- to register to vote, Wyoming
law defines residence as "the place of a person's actual
habitation" meaning "the place where a person has a
current habitation and to which, whenever he is absent,
he has the intention of returning." [See Cheney's
Problem With the Constitution: The Illegal Ticket ] The
Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution forbids the
electors of a particular state from voting for a president
and vice president who are inhabitants of that same
state.
4. With the Republican Party claiming it wants to
move away from the extreme right and become more
inclusive, Cheney is an extreme embarrassment. He's a
man who hasn't bothered to vote in the last 14 of 16
state and local elections, yet his donations to far right
wing organizations join him at the hip with Christian
extremists. [See Cheney's Checkbook Democracy,
MoJo Wire, Sept. 20]
5. The GOP could be worried that if the celebrity
press corps should start doing its homework, and the
truth about Halliburton comes out, it would sink the
Bush/Cheney ticket. [See Cheney's Corporate Past --
Critics Charge That the Would-Be VP Ran a Racist,
Oppressive Company, The Boston Phoenix, Sept 21]
6. Dick Cheney, and certainly not his
venomous-mouthed wife Lynne, doesn't exactly light
voters' fires. A McCain or a Powell could make the
difference for Bush and Republican hopes.
Are these enough reasons for buyer's remorse? So is the
thought that the GOP may force Bush to dump his running
mate – with a cover story, of course -- so preposterous? The
question is whether voters would buy it or would they
interpret it as poor judgment on Bush's part for having chosen
Cheney in the first place.
When another George – McGovern – dumped running mate
Tom Eagleton back in '72, that only added to voters'
perceptions of McGovern as lacking in leadership, good
judgment and competence. McGovern lost in a landslide to
Richard Nixon, with a little help from the White House
Plumbers and the Watergate break-in – ah, there are those
dirty tricks again.