Quarkhenge

In my previous post, I said that Robert Gates could be Bush's last chance to push a major appointment through a Republican Senate. That may not be true.

First of all, he's re-appointed John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the UN. (That's likely to fail.)

But something else occurs to me. When Bush lyingly declared that Rumsfeld would stay through the end of his administration, he said the same thing about Cheney. Is Cheney next to go?

There are a number of considerations here. First, Bush has no authority to fire Cheney. But the VP has no Constitutional powers other than presiding over the Senate (and voting only to break a tie), and succeeding the President, and Bush could theoretically revoke all of Cheney's delegated authority. (That's relevant only if Bush wants Cheney out and Cheney wants to stay.) But it could be advantageous to the Republicans to have a sitting Vice President as Bush's heir apparent for 2008.

Cheney apparently didn't want Rumsfeld to leave; Bush overruled him. (Source: Keith Olbermann.)

If Cheney is going to leave, it would make sense for him to do so soon, so Bush still has a Republican Congress to approve his replacement. It would be seen as the blatantly political maneuver, but that rarely stops this President.

Or Cheney might just hold on to the bitter end, either with or without Bush's consent.

I have no predictions here, just some ramblings.