Posted on 02/19/2005 4:43:15 AM PST by pookie18
Vice President Dick Cheney likely will step down next year due to health reasons and be replaced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, according to a report by geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler.
On his website, To the Point, Wheeler reports there's a "red-breasted rumor bird" flying around Capitol Hill that has whispered the same thing to most congressional committee chairmen.
"We all know that Dick Cheney has been the best vice president of modern times, perhaps in American history," one such chairman told Wheeler. "And we know that he absolutely will not run for president in 2008. Further, he has an unfortunate history of heart trouble. So let's just say none of us will be surprised if, sometime next year, he will step down from the vice presidency due to his health."
Continued the source: "Should this happen, President Bush would need to appoint his replacement, just as Richard Nixon chose Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew. It is quite clear to us whom the president would choose should he need to: Condoleezza Rice."
Wheeler goes on to analyze what such a scenario would mean for the 2008 presidential election.
Writes Wheeler: "Being a sitting vice president places Condi in an impregnable position for the GOP nomination in 2008 and sucks every breath of wind from Hillary's sails. Historically, it's hard for a party to keep the White House after they've had it for eight years. This is George Bush and Dick Cheney's way to buck history – and make it."
Serving as Bush's national security adviser during his first term, Rice took over the State Department last month.
Everyone keeps talking about Hillary's stance on illegal immigration. What is it? I haven't heard. At this point, if she really is wanting to put a stop to it, she will have a LOT of people backing her. Something the Republicans had better acknowledge soon.
Wow...
Whooo Hooo!
If that should ever happen, I'm all for it.
It's between Condi and Colorado's Bill Owens...
I would welcome this move. It would be brilliant.
I thought Dick Cheney was president. ;-)
If this happens, the Dems will go nuts. For that reason, I would love to see it.
A lot of guessing by the author of this article based on rumors.
Rumor
I've been wondering who among the Republicans would be a viable candidate in 08 since there's no heir apparent.
This scenario makes sense but there's one fly in the ointment. Condi's never been elected to office. Is there a precedence for someone (besides George Washington or maybe one of the very earliest Prez's) being elected with no previous elected office?
I hope that is just a rumor as well.
As much as I like Dr. Rice, I do not want to see Dick Cheney step down, nor do I want a woman for our President.
But on the real I would hate to see Cheney go, this looks like a good move.
I suspect you to be right.
Just idle and bored hands at work, dreaming of magic moves on a ficticious political chess board. ;)
Twenty-Fifth Amendment - Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principle officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Presidential Succession
The Twenty-fifth Amendment was an effort to resolve some of the continuing issues revolving about the office of the President; that is, what happens upon the death, removal, or resignation of the President and what is the course to follow if for some reason the President becomes disabled to such a degree that he cannot fulfill his responsibilities? The practice had been well established that the Vice President became President upon the death of the President, as had happened eight times in our history. Presumably, the Vice President would become President upon the removal of the President from office. Whether the Vice President would become acting President when the President became unable to carry on and whether the President could resume his office upon his recovering his ability were two questions that had divided scholars and experts. Also, seven Vice Presidents had died in office and one had resigned, so that for some twenty per cent of United States history there had been no Vice President to step up. But the seemingly most insoluble problem was that of presidential inability--Garfield lying in a coma for eighty days before succumbing to the effects of an assassin's bullet, Wilson an invalid for the last eighteen months of his term, the result of a stroke--with its unanswered questions: who was to determine the existence of an inability, how was the matter to be handled if the President sought to continue, in what manner should the Vice President act, would he be acting President or President, what was to happen if the President recovered. Congress finally proposed this Amendment to the States in the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination, with the Vice Presidency vacant and a President who had previously had a heart attack.
This Amendment saw multiple use during the 1970s and resulted for the first time in our history in the accession to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of two men who had not faced the voters in a national election. First, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, and President Nixon nominated Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed him, following the procedures of Sec. 2 of the Amendment for the first time. Hearings were held upon the nomination by the Senate Rules Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, both Houses thereafter confirmed the nomination, and the new Vice President took the oath of office December 6, 1973. Second, President Richard M. Nixon resigned his office August 9, 1974, and Vice President Ford immediately succeeded to the office and took the presidential oath of office at noon of the same day. Third, again following Sec. 2 of the Amendment, President Ford nominated Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York to be Vice President; on August 20, 1974, hearings were held in both Houses, confirmation voted and Mr. Rockefeller took the oath of office December 19, 1974. 1
Footnotes
[Footnote 1] For the legislative history, see S. Rep. No. 66, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965); H.R. Rep. No. 203, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965); H.R. Rep. No. 564, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965). For an account of the history of the succession problem, see R. Silva, Presidential Succession (1951).
Source is FindLaw. Com
So anyway, this is a possibility as defined by the Constitution and a pefectly legitimate point for discussion.
What a B*tchslap for Hillary, as determined by the Constitution - lol!
whats wrong with Tom Ridge?
Recycled wishing.
IIRC, Vice President Cheney stated exactly the opposite of this article's premise in a recent interview. He's here for the duration.
GOP political leaders pull dumb moves sometimes, but they're not THIS dumb.
Leni
I agree with you...Condi is strong on the international relations scene, being a Veep is not in keeping with her knowledge and abilities. Also, it sends a message of executive instability to the world.
Keep Condi as SS, bring in Colorado's Bill Owens.
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