I’ve been toying with this idea for a few days now. Is it possible that Cheney setup Bush for a fall thus making Cheney prez.
Cheney is certainly a cunning power broker. He is the most influential and powerful veep in history and is Bush’s most trusted adviser. The former Ambassador to Gabon has claimed that Cheney must have known the Iraq-Niger story was bogus well before the State of the Union as Cheney’s office inquired repeatedly into the Ambassador’s investigation. Additionally, Cheney’s Halliburton (a company which still pays Cheney an undisclosed annual fee) has been given lucrative contracts out of this war.
The conspiracy theorist in me is beginning to think that GWB is nothing but a patsy. Cheney has Bush do all the dirty work that will benefit Cheney personally. Then, when the smoke and mirrors are gone and malfeasance in the White House has become apparent to the public, Bush will either step down or be forced out making the 44th President of the United States Richard Cheney.
If your theory is true, and Cheney already controls everything through Bush, why would Cheney want Bush to step down? He wouldn’t have anymore power, and this way, any criticism falls on Bush and not Cheney.
It’s not just Cheney. Read up on all the pre-2000 election shenanigans with Cheney, Rumsfelt, Ashcroft, et al. Iraq was on the endangered species list long before Bush’s “Axis of Evil” comments. I think Carl Rove is pulling most of the strings, but manages to keep a low profile while doing it.
Yeah, and then the US public will re-elect Cheney in '04? Not a chance. I guess if he wants to be president for a few months then this theory might have some credence.
I agree with your premise(s) that Cheney does not need to be Prez to flex his power but it seems that if the shit hits the fan then Bush will take the heat not Dick.
The shit’s not gonna hit the fan, though; however, the stench of it may well waft through the blades.
While I’d be exceptionally surpirsed if there were no Machiavellian manuevers going on in the American halls of power, (arguably The Most Powerful Nation Ever), I don’t find the theory presented to soudn like it’d be worth the trouble based on those motivations alone.
Other candidates for most powerful “countries”
-China in ancient times
-Gengis Khans empire (biggest ever)
-France with Napoleon
-Great Britain, before the US came along
-Spain, when it “owned” most of America
Bottom line. The US is now more of an empire than a country, IMO.
I actually didn’t say that, but no biggie. Yes, if the s-h-t-f, Bush takes the heat, but Cheney certainly gets his share as he’s up to his eyeballs in the whole situation, too. Anyway, you have an interesting theory, but as I said above, it doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. If Bush actually got booted or had to resign, I’d bet my life savings that no Republican could win in '04.