Des Moines Register editor: Cheney needs to step aside

[Newsjock]

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040621/6303254s.htm

Dear Mr. Vice President:

I am writing to you as a long-time admirer. Ever since you rose to prominence 30 years ago -- when you became chief of staff to President Gerald Ford and I was a Wall Street Journal reporter covering economic policy in the Ford administration -- you seemed to embody the qualities needed at the right hand of the president. Your competence, calmness amid crisis and absolute devotion to duty were obvious then, as now.

For nearly four years now, you have been a loyal and hard-working partner in the presidency of George W. Bush. Your experience, steadiness and character surely have given the president strength in these difficult times. I believe you have always considered first what is best for the president, and only secondly what is best for Dick Cheney.

... Nobody knows better than you do that you have become a lightning rod for criticism, and a favorite target for your party's political opponents. Fair or not, it is simply too easy to paint Dick Cheney as a tool of the oil industry, a too-eager advocate of war in Iraq and a too-gullible supporter of the now-disgraced Ahmad Chalabi, who fed the Bush administration false intelligence on Iraq. Your former company, Halliburton, is a political albatross around your neck, weighing down not only you but also President Bush.

... I hope that you will take it to President Bush and convince him that his chances of being re-elected -- and maintaining the policies you've helped shape -- are better with a new running mate. He will listen to you. You could even cast it in Reaganesque terms. Remind your boss that he is the heir to the Reagan political legacy, and the keeper of the values that Reagan espoused. For those values to triumph in 2004, it may be necessary for you to take a hit for the team, so that President Bush can win one for the Gipper.

[bluestateguy]

1. I want Cheney to stay

Why?

1) He isn't running in 2008 for the top job, so a new VP would just be grooming a front-runner for the next election.

2) A replacement would create a new buzz and energy around the Bush campaign, taking the focus off of Kerry and reinvigorating the Republicans.

3) Cheney is loaded with political baggage now.

4) He deserves to stand before the voters of this country and face their judgement for the wrongs he has committed in office.

[StClone]

2. Readers at DUer

Will know that this has been talked about and predicted by me since last summer. He will leave with health problems and that may be their October (or August) surprise.

[billybob537]

3. Albatross. God I hope he stays