This is a short diary with some jaw dropper item via Huffpo citing the conservative Insight magazine. The article, at Insight online, is behind subscription wall here “Cheney seen retiring after midterm elections.”
Servers overload maybe encountered.
Opening graph at Insight
Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to retire within a year. Senior GOP sources envision the retirement of Mr. Cheney in 2007, months after the congressional elections. The sources said Mr. Cheney would be persuaded to step down as he becomes an increasing political liability to President Bush. The sources reported a growing rift between the president and vice president as well as their staffs.
This has huge implications. Changes the landscape.
Further accessed excerpts from full article here
[..]They cited Mr. Cheney’s failure to immediately tell the president of the accidental shooting of the vice president’s hunting colleague earlier this month. The White House didn’t learn of the incident until 18 hours later.
Mr. Cheney’s next crisis could take place by the end of the year, the sources said. They said the White House was expecting Mr. Cheney to defend himself against charges from his former chief of staff, Lewis Libby, that the vice president ordered him to relay classified information. Such a charge could lead to a congressional investigation and even impeachment proceedings.
“Nothing will happen until after the congressional elections,” a GOP source said. “After that, there will be significant changes in the administration and Cheney will probably be part of that.”
Already, senators expect Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate whether Mr. Cheney authorized Mr. Libby to divulge classified material. Mr. Libby has told a grand jury that unnamed “superiors” directed him to relay the content of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in July 2003.
[..]
Mr. Bush, the sources said, has rejected the advice from circles close to his father, the former president, to dismiss Mr. Cheney. They say Mr. Bush has long regarded Mr. Cheney as the experienced hand in national security, as well as being trusted by the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Aside the strategy going forward, for candidates in 2006 and 2008, one can conclude this is more than a trial balloon.
The ‘Cheney Coup’ has enormous consequences long term and must be righted. A new Veep will cleanse and right the system. Vice Cheney has usurped the presidency, violated the Constitution and International Treaties.
The question arises, how good is the source – Insight Magazine? Rawstory has a headliner, and dubs the source dubious but notes that they do, occasionally, nail breaking scoops.
Perhaps this is a psy-ops or maybe it’s intended to push Cheney out the door. Rove is that you?
Clearly the senior GOPers are worried with elections only 8 months away. AP reporting today that the GOP governors are concerned about the stumbles, not liking the grassrooots feedback.
Over the past week there have been several critical articles from the conservative camp. William F. Buckley’s scathing piece ‘It Didn’t Work’. This can’t be helpful. Paul Pillar’s piece in Foreign Affairs on Cheney’s pressuring to fix the intelligence for the Iraq war.
A new CBS poll shows Bush has taken a dive, down 34% approval – soon after straight shooting Dick’s quail accident followed by the DPW ports deal. Cheney’s approval is at 18%. And then it’s the secrecy. The Iraq war, orchestrated by Cheney, is meeting with buyer’s remorse here and over there.
The sharks are smelling blood in the water. Most damaging to the base are the last two events. Dick’s facts on the shooting accident did not sell well among hunters. Heard on far right talk radio is that Cheney is followed by an ambulance when he travels, even on hunting trips.
Then there’s UAE DPW deal. We’re told not to worry, nothing will change since the Coast Guard is responsible for port security. Now it’s revealed the Coast Guard made known their concerns.
This one issue – the UAE deal – has knocked away the BushCo tripod strategy: Fear. National Security. GOP’s guard your safety.
And having demonized all Arabs as terrorists, it becomes difficult to reverse oneself. Have no doubt, Bush ‘will stay the course’, as the deal slips through. But Chickens have come home to roost.
Cheney needs to go. The Why is laid out by one of our own. Take the site pass and go read Sidney Blumenthal’s “Cheney’s Coup”
I need to recover and then expand on this one, expand my comments.
Wish it was sooner. And, if the dems pick up enough seats, gwb could also find himself facing an early retirement!
Here’s the link to full article Cheney seen retiring after midterms
This follows several articles over the past 10 days on GOPers being livid over this latest of mis-steps. Let’s recognize that Cheney is the real president, having hijacked the apparatus of government; putting in place a cabal and ascribing unto himself authority beyond the role of a vice-president.
He selected himself for the office didn’t he?
He selected himself for the office didn’t he?
If that is the case, then gwb will try to play dumb in the hope that he can somehow pull it off. But this
will show that won’t work.
& we’re back to the obvious question: what president?
That’s a good question!
.
(World Net Daily Feb. 27, 2006)
Huffington Post links to Insight
Reaction by Wonkette :: Insight Makes Shit Up, Matt Links To It
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
If this comes to pass, the next questions, Who? WHY?
I’m sure also that part of the logic here is that Cheney wouldn’t be a viable candidate for the hot seat, so essentially HIS political career is over. They’re hoping to get someone in there now who can run on the office and the “bush legacy” platform.
Maybe they’re thinking Condi could get enough boost to go for it….
Today, Bush got an earful from the governors who are worried at what they’re seeing at their grassroots level. See this from an AP wire posted at MSNBC. “GOP governors worried about Bush’s stumbles”
The article, based on interviews conducted with more than a dozen governors, is excerpted below.
The ports’ firestorm, even with a facing review approval due in 45 days, is good news for Democratic activists and Governor Dean. Imo, the UAE deal will not be reversed. It’s part of a thrust by US for Middle-East Free Trade Area. UAE is our largest trading partner for arms sales. We’ve staging areas in UAE.
What’s worrying is that we can’t seem to seize and sustain the opportunities presented by Bu$hCo. Apart from Feingold who has shown he’s a man of principles, is sincere and, occasionally Harry Reid and Dean, we’re awol.
It could be a repeat of the ’70s — vice president resigns, president appoints new vice president who is confirmed, president resigns, new VP pardons president before a trial can be held to determine extent of evil deeds.
Won’t get my hopes too far up though until I see white polyester suits make a comeback… 😉
History does have a way of repeating itself. But I could do w/o seeing the white poly suits again!
I think it’s very possible that Cheney could be compelled to step aside.
My sense is that the cabal that used to control US foreign policy, (i.e. the Carlyle Group crowd comprised of creatures like Scowcroft and Baker and Carlucci, and lesser stars like Kissinger and Odom and Powell), are gaining in power again after having fought a constant battle against the neocon usurpers ever since they seized the White House with Bush.
And as it now is becoming clear even to the densest skulls in DC, the Neocon adventure in the MidEast is too dysfunctional to sustain itself on any level. We are going to see, (as we already have with the recent utterances of Francis Fukuyama and other prominent neocons), increasing dissenting rhetoric within the neocon cabal and the gradual withdrawl of the neocons from government positions of policy making power. And while they’re making excuses for themselves, (“Our ideology, our plan, our philosophy is brilliant but it was implemented badly.”), they’ll be excoriating their sacrificial goats in government, (Rumsfeld for sure, and while they won’t say it outright, they’ll turn against Cheney and his aides too.)
At a minimum I’d say Rumsfeld, Hadley and Libby are toast. If the Carlyle gang can really flex some new muscle, Cheney will be gone too and the core neocons will toast his departure as well.
If the Dems were smart they’d plan ahead for all of this and set the stage to prevent Bush and his small group of pals from gaining cover from this stealth neocon exodus. The Dems must make sure to not let Bush off the hook just because he is seen to fire Rumsfeld.
The entire Bush regime approach to governance needs to be repudiated in it’s entirety and the extremists who’ve hijacked the Republican party and congress need to be similarly repudiated and their disastrous ideology rejected in all it’s aspects.
that’d be a fkg novelty!
Sad but true. The Dem leadership just don’t get it. Their overabundant caution is like a form of slow-motion political suicide. And they keep repeating the same failed strategy over and over; refusing to learn from their mistakes because their state of denial prevents them from acknowledging they’re even making mistakes.
Cheney has been in a near-permanent state of “retirement” he’s so secretive in his role as the real president behind the dummy who has the title.
But this reported denoument originates (at least) as far back as October last year when the WaPo published that Cheney was involved in the Plame leak.
Perhaps his 18% approval rating combined with his itchy trigger finger is making the GOP uncomfortable with literally the biggest elephant in the room that no one has been brave enough to talk about — until now.
Oh well, I can’t be the only one in America who hopes Cheney experiences a rather different hunting accident the next time he takes to the field with a beer under his belt. Or perhaps he can take a clue from his hand puppet and choke on a pretzel.
The neocons, like the clever cowards they are, had set things up from the start so that if they needed to “beat a hasty retreat” from the halls of power they’d have the hapless imbecile Bush to leave behind as the ultimate scapegoat for their own atrocities. Lesser thugs like Rumsfeld and Hadley and Wurmser were always expendable as well.
We tend to think of Cheney as a neocon, but I believe Cheney has a destructive pathology all his own, separate and apart from the neocon cult. Cheney and the neocons have convergent, serendipidous interests, but, in the end, Cheney’s deep lunacy eclipses all but the most rabid of the neocons. Ledeen, Perle, Addington, Krauthammer, Kristol; these are true sociopaths, and so is Cheney, but Cheney’s pathology goes even farther beyond these nuts on it’s own bizarre trajectory. He’s more of a Pol Pot or a Pinochet than a Stalin or Saddam or Roman Emperor. He’s sicker than the others, though measuring the difference at that level is a meaningless exercise.
In any case, the neocons see him as expendable if it’s necessary to keep the myth of their own infallability intact in their own delusional minds.
Follow the money. BushCo 41, AKA The Carlyle Group, is up to their greedy game here. HERE’S an analysis, with many links showing the inter-connetions at work here. Note the major players and their positions, especially John Snow and David Sanborn, and the convergences of The Carlyle Group, CSX/Horizon, and DPW.
Since James Baker lll showed up and Skowcroft dissed Cheney publicly a few months ago, the writings been on the wall. The neocon hustle has become bad for business and things are gonna change. I wouldn’t put it past 41 to let dim-son go down with the ship, just to watch the little weasel squirm…there’s no love lost there, and he’ll never see the inside of a cell. Completely discredited, exiled to Crawford and a new and improved Republican Image with two years to set up for 2008.
This has the potential of creating a major shift in the paradigm and alter the game board for the D’s, even in O6.
Peace
Yes! I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about how I think the long running battle between the neocons and the Carlyle gang for control of US foreign policy is now starting to shift in favor of the Carlyle crowd. I think this port deal is part of that, and I think they have a chance to prevail in the White House and in doing so break the grip of the neocons.
Carlyle are monstrous bums too, but even so they’d be an improvement over the reckless destructiveness of the neocons.
You know there’s something really wrong when creatures like Scowcroft and Carlucci look good when compared to the alternative (the neocons).
Imho, they’re sniffing the I word. Indict. Impeach. And clearly, they’ve lost support on the Hill. Moreover, they no longer can contain the secrets. Too many leaks.
Little noticed is Specter’s proposed legislation to resolve the NSA warrantless spying scandal.
There are two showdown coming in the near term
One, the NSA spying probe see Glenn Greenwald analysis here. Scroll down
The other, selling their wingnut base on the UAE ports deal. That’s a hard sell given the demonizing; arabs are terrorists – no differentiating the good from the bad.
His residence cannot be found on GPS. The area where he lives is blurred out. Oh, you can find the Pentagon, Congress etc. but not Cheney’s residence.
His neighbours hate him too because he blasted for months to create an underground bunker in his VP residence.
Keep all eyes on Fitzgerald. The Plamegate probe, which is ongoing, may just do in Cheney.
Rawstory provides this link to NYDaily News that “Scooter notes ID’d CIA spy”. The story reports the notes
Can Libby’s firewall for the Veep remain intact?
The Daily Show had a tape of it.
Bush: “So you shot your rifle?”
Cheney: “Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, rrrr.”
Bush: “You hit someone?”
Cheney: “Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, rrrrr”
…
G. W. [34%] Bush
R. [18%] Cheney
woo hoo!
It’s ALL show biz.
New actors, same show.
Close down the theater.
AG
Yup,
More and more of the same old show.
The Show Must Go On
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
I would still like to know what all he did when he was president for a short time. I’ll bet he wrote some executive orders…or something
Am I the only one concerned about Cheney’s time he had as president?
obviously they (whoever – WH, Carlyle junta, etc) would like him to retire/resign, but how do they get him to retire? can’t believe he’ll do it willingly.