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inherits the presidency after bush is thrown out.
Why? PLEASE remember this. It's fundamental:
cheney likes to operate in the dark. He's happiest working and manipulating and pulling strings behind the curtain, in the shadows, behind the scenes - where NOOOOOOOOOOOObody can see what he's up to. Why is that? Because he realizes that what he's up to would piss off most average Americans if they knew about it, because they'd see in detail how he WASN'T working on behalf of THEIR BEST INTERESTS. So of course he doesn't want us to see what he's up to and he wants all his doings in secret. That's why he wanted to be SECOND IN COMMAND. Not Numero Uno. He knew it'd be the perfect puppet-master position because idiot george was such an egomaniac that he'd want the big job and the big title and the big office and the big limo and all the fanfare and other such gravy. cheney does all the heavy lifting and george is the figurehead.
cheney would HATE being in the hot seat - the head guy, the guy where the buck stops, the guy who takes all the heat, front-row center. He would HATE it. No more operating in the shadows for him. ESPECIALLY if an IMPEACHMENT trial and all the woes that go with it energize the public AND the press to assume correctly that where there's smoke, there's fire. Once we arrive at such a point, people will be naturally predisposed to be suspicious of these folks, and a president cheney would NOT get the free pass that good ol let's-have-a-beer-together george has.
Furthermore, there's the appeal thing. Like it or not, george has appeal. He has this aw-shucks, good-ol'-boy, nice average guy image where people genuinely did resonate to the "the guy you could go have a beer with" shtick. It was shtick, but it was effective. People really think he's fairly amiable. NOBODY thinks that of cheney. NOBODY. He does not have a warm fuzzy ANYTHING. He's got this lopsided snarl and he looks like everybody's pet caricature of the miserly millionaire breezing past the long bread lines in his fancy car. He does NOT have the appeal bush does. So, cosmetics and perceptions and superficiality being what they are in today's America, he would NOT get the breaks people are so willing to give the "affable" bush. THAT'S why bush was put in the front, anyway. He's the sunny side of the cooked egg. cheney is the stuff underneath that stuck to the pan. The public would be FAR less willing to cut him the slack they've cut george.
All that will be HILARIOUS fun for us to enjoy. At such a time, also, Congress - possibly a House of Reps back in Democratic control if people are still as pissed by next year's elections - will be in NO MOOD to play ball with these shits anymore. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY. The loser stench that clings to bush will slop over and stain all things republi-CON, especially a president cheney. We will have seen too much to be naive anymore. He will be a placeholder just as Gerald Ford was, and a LOT less sympathetic a public figure.
The likeability quotient for bush versus the one for cheney are like night and day. People just don't like cheney as much. It's visceral for both, and very much an intangible. He's not as fun or as smiley. He growls and has that sneer, and he's just not a sympathetic character. And unsympathetic characters do not win public sympathy. By then, people will be suspicious, fed up, angry, and VERY tired of this status quo. To be a republi-CON in general won't be a pleasant experience, and they won't be able to get anything done. Neither will he. It'll be an EXTREMELY unhappy time for the whole unholy bunch of 'em, especially as they start to turn on each other more, out of frustration and yearning for the good old days they see slipping away from them (we got SO CLOSE!!!! - as Will Pitt said in one of his recent pieces: "Somewhere there's a neocon who is seething."). I can remember campaigns after the whole Watergate debacle that ultimately brought in Jimmy Carter - where one of the big campaign slogans was "Had Enough? Vote Democratic" And people did. And you could not PAY people to admit they'd voted for Nixon. Such voters simply could not be found. And believe me, some of us tried. I can remember that, well (and I remember how deeply satisfying it was, too).
cheney won't have any fun at all. He'll VERY quickly get REALLY tired of everybody looking over his shoulder and demanding answers and accountability and press conferences and statements and explanations, when he's gonna want to kick back in that nice mansion he just bought and count his money with nobody bothering him or annoying him or expecting things of him or asking for stuff anymore.
Besides, there's the added factor of his famous ticker. Little ol' lynne may very likely step up and start making those "husband needs to come home and spend more time with the family" noises. If, indeed, the stress of his new job doesn't get to him all by itself. He is NOT negotiating from a position of strength, health-wise.
At any rate, if bush does go down - and it's a VERY WORTHY, VERY NOBLE CAUSE for all of us to get behind, for the sake of the survival of the America we still love - anything and anyone involved with him will be damaged goods to one degree or other. The WHOLE LOT OF 'EM will be NOT be negotating from a position of strength.
Which is exactly where we want 'em. Weakened. On the defensive. On the wane - watching as their sun is setting.
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