Anyone heard this rumor? Actually, Cheney will resign as VP to be the new head of the CIA, and Bush will pick Rudy Giuliani as his new running mate. Lots of dynamics there, not the least of which is it sets Giuliani up nicely to run against (shudder) Hillary in 2008.
That strikes me as very unlikely. If reelected (may God prevent) I would think that there would be a place for Rudy but I would not expect any high profile members of the team to get the sack to make a place for him – unless it was at the State Department.
I doubt that Bush would do it - everything I’ve read suggests that he is pretty loyal. Further, getting rid of Cheney would admit, to some degree, that the policies of the past 3.5 years haven’t been successful. Also, removing Cheney would probably signal that Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfowitz, et al are also on their way out.
I think it would be more likely that Ashcroft would step down and Guliani would become attorney general.
If that happened, I’d predict two things: At first, he would be a wildly popular choice, and it might just win Bush the election. But as soon as Guliani started having to do the job, he’ll become just as unpopular as Ashcroft, because there are unpopular choices to be made.
But nobody could make worse choices than Ashcroft.
Be that as it may, even the good decisions will have their dissentors. When there are no good options, only varying shades of bad options, someone is going to dislike what you are doing, no matter what you do.
Rudy’s pro-choice, pro-gay and he’s an adulterer. The fundie wing of the GOP will never allow him on the ticket.
Guiliani would make a great AG (much better than as a mayor or a Senator, I think), and if people really think that liberals would object as much to a pro-choice, gay friendly New York Republican as much as they did to Ashcroft… well.
And yeah, making going after states for choosing to allow physician assisted suicide priority number 1 over terrorism was really an “unpopular choice that had to be made.”
Don’t forget how important it was to cover up those bronze boobies either.
I agree that he would make a good AG- hell he would be fucking outstanding compared to Ashcroft.
Rudy for AG! Free the bronze boobies!
I’ve heard it speculated on CBS AM news radio.
I give it little credibility… and, even though I would vote for him as Senator or even Governor, I do not think Rudy is the man to be the President. Plus, the whole messy divorce/censorship of art/gay friendly/pro-choice thing would sink him with Bush.
But as an AG? Oh, hell, nobody would be safe, including Bush, and the world would be a better place.
Yeah, I mean that Newt Gingrich never got anywhere in the GOP…
Rudy’s pro-choice and pro-gay? Good for him.
Well, no one knew about Newty when he became first SOTH and when the revelations did become public they hurt his political image quite a bit.
But it’s really the pro-choice/ pro-gay thing that would hamstring Rudy with the Religious Right
I mean when he first became SOTH. He was obviously not the first to become Speaker.
I also think Rudy would make an outstanding AG, but that’s because he can be a real hardass when it comes to criminals. He’d probably be a real law-and-order type, just like Ashcroft. Although I think he’d be more reasonable, and a lot less likely to employ his religious views in his decisionmaking.
So I say drop Ashcroft, and in with Guliani!
I just don’t see Cheney stepping down like that. Is there even precedent for a Vice President to quit the job and a assume a lower office? Sounds unlikely. Plus, the only plausible reason he could give for quitting that wouldn’t cause a serious loss of face would be concerns about his health, and that would probably disqualify him from accepting another cabinet position.
As much as I consign his dance police quality of life enforcement extrajudicial assassin ass to perdition, Rudy G is not the guy you want as AG when your ass is hanging out the window and scandals are “maturing” day by day.
especially if you have stiffed the nypd and nyfd…
This isn’t based on anything, but it sounds like Chuck Schumer (NY’s senior Senator) is going to make a run at the governorship in 2006. Perhaps Rudy would oppose him? Pataki apparently has dreams of going to Washington, so maybe he won’t run for a fourth term.
Ashcroft is not really a “law and order” guy so much as a moralistic zealot. He has no real concern about protecting laws which have no religious significance to him such as the Bill of Roights or the Geneva Convention.
RG, on the other hand, is a genuine hard-ass law and order guy. maybe too much of one, but I would trust him to investigate a scandal. He doesn’t strike me as corruptible or as someone who would lay down for anybody.
I’m sure Giuliani would make a better VP than Cheney, a better AG than Ashcroft, in fact in improvement over the incumbent in practically any Cabinet post he might take (with the possible exception of Secretary of State). Nevertheless, if Giuliani is a relatively liberal Republican – pro-choice, pro-gay-rights, pro-honest government, etc. – would he even accept a post in the Bush Admin if it were offered? Will he even vote for Bush this November?
I gather that those of you who think that Guiliani would make a good AG are not New Yorkers. As someone who lives in the City, and even voted for him, I don’t think you all understand his personallity.
Perhaps his most significant characteristic is his being thin-skinned. He is a man who does not handle criticism well. I really don’t think he would do well in the rough and tumble world of national politics, particularly if he were to have to fit into someone else’s administration.
He had a brilliant first term and run out after September 11, 2001, but other than that short period, his second term was one disaster after another. After having achieving his initial goals in his first term, he was rudderlessly going around and trying to change whatever had offended him at the moment.
Although he has a reputation as a law and order guy, it is tempered by his less well known reputation as a someone who was more interested in high-visibility arrests than the hard fight to obtain convictions in the most challenging cases.
Whatever you can say about Ashcroft, he is operating from his vision, however warped it may be. Loath as I am to say it, I think that might possibly be better than an attorney general who is prone to lashing out at whoever sets him off.
The GOP has never had problems with adulterers before, why would they start now?
But the pro-choice and pro-gay bit would be a tough sell. Nonetheless, I’m not sold on Giuliani. His reputation is based largely on two things:
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The reduction of crime in New York, for which giving him credit is highly questionable since MOST big cities saw a reduction in crime at precisely the same time, and
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9/11, for which he is lionized for basically being a sensitive guy after it happened.
I don’t see a lot in his resume to suggest he’d be a great President.