Too bad Bingo Bob Russell’s a Democrat.
Nope. They’d cave in, and accept him as Vice President. Caving in is what they do.
The Antichrist.
He & Cheney went to school together, donca know…
I suspect Condoleezza Rice could not be confirmed, or at least not easily. Still, it would be great for the first female Veep to be from the GOP. I would suppose he would ask Colin Powell, or more critically his wife.
Snake Plissken for Vice President!
This is one of those occasions when you’re letting your political views overwhelm reality.
Somebody a majority of Congress could count on to start to clean up the mess Cheney has left, and a plausible temporary President to fill out Bush’s term - i.e. *not * anyone currently in the administration, meaning not someone loyal to Dubya before country. Too, if it were Rice, her insistence that she wasn’t going to run in 2008 would be replaced by questions about her really wanting to step down.
And I suspect Poppy Bush might fill the bill. He may have been a pretty mediocre VP and President, but that would still be a considerable improvement. Besides, he has eligibility remaining for this term and not the next one, so there’d be no question about his caretaker status.
But again, Cheney didn’t create that mess because he was VP, VP is a more or less powerless position. Cheney is powerful because Bush gave him a lot of responsibility, a hypothetical successor wouldn’t be anymore able to undo what Cheney has done then any other non-VP Joe Schmoe.
So so long as Bush chooses a semi-creditable and uncontroversial second VP, Congress isn’t going to put up a big fight over confirmation. The job isn’t really important enough unless the sitting prez dies, and the chances of Bush going to that big Undisclosed Location in the Sky in the next 18 months are pretty close to nil.
Right, but: You think Bush would take charge of his Presidency without Cheney there? Why? He obviously has the authority, but he’s never used it. The next VP would be the real Top Dog just like this one.
The VP job isn’t *normally * that important, sure - but for *this * Presidency, it most certainly is.
It’s only important because of the dynamic between Bush and Cheney. With Cheney gone, Bush could just as easily delegate those responsibilities he gave to Cheney to some combination of Rice, Rove, Gonzales and his other confidants. He doesn’t need to give any power to a VP unless that person is someone he wants to give that power to. So it isn’t really worth burning a lot of political capital for Dems to fight to keep someone out of that post.
Rice would have problems. She does not appear to be neocon enough for the power behind the throne. She may be attractive enough for the people and give rise to the party ,but the neos wont accept her. They would like Bolton or Negroponte who are still believers.
I’m glad somebody got it.
Lord. I’ve gotta ask: Have you and Reality ever met?
Granted, this congress is still not as aggressive in dealing with Bush as some of us would like. But this isn’t John Bolton being named interim Ambassador to the United Nations through an established loophole in the executive appointments procedure. It’s a freaking Constitutional Office! If Mr. Bush were to be bitten by a rattlesnake at the Crawford ranch and die, would you VP ex nihilo become President? Not bloody well likely.
On second thought, that should read: Hell, no!
Well, okay, he wasn’t really obscure. Course, in those days of Democratic dominance, being Minority Leader didn’t rank much higher than being second assistant bust polisher in the Statuary Room. . . .
Could Bush use a recess appointment to install a new VP?
I would assume not. The VP is not covered under the general clause of Article II, Section 2, but is specifically addressed by the 25th Amendment:
So, based on a plain reading of the text, the new VP can’t take office until after confirmation.
Not gonna happen, but if it did why not Joementum Lieberman? That would allow Gov. Rell to name a Republican to finish his term and the party gets a seat for four years that it had no hope of getting otherwise. Get Lieberman to formally switch parties, and bingo the Senate is again in Republican hands.
I’m gonna have to go with “some vaguely respected old Republican nobody”. The Democrats won’t confirm anyone who could possibly have a chance in 2008, and no Republican who could possibly have a chance would want the job, since they’d likely do better without such a close link to Bush.
One huge problem: while Lieberman is to the right of virtually every Republican on Iraq and Iran, he votes with Democrats the rest of the time (87.5%, source WP).
My guess: James Baker would be the first one interviewed by the White House.
I think Rice could have a hard time getting approved by the House of Representatives. She sailed through Senate confirmation when Iraq just looked like a medium-sized disaster. But Pelosi et al now must be mindful that approving someone who was so involved in the Iraq policy from the beginning would make it look like Congressional Democrats were, as Der Trihs has pointed out, simply folding and agreeing with Bush’s war.
Let’s be frank: Rice would be an attractive nominee because we’ve never had a woman or an African-American in such a high position before. Call me crazy, but I don’t think people will care about making history in such a way when the issue of Iraq will be front and center on everyone’s mind.
So I think that Bush would do more or less what he did when Rumsfeld left: find someone who will still essentially support his policies, but who will also carry an image of being someone from the outside who appears to understand Iraq better than Cheney ever did. James Baker is the first guy who pops to my mind.
Would Baker take the job? That’s a tough call. But he would breeze through the Senate and the House in no time flat, while not really upsetting any apple carts in the White House, either.