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(Vice) President Cheney
// Why Dick Cheney isn't Going Anywhere
The guilty verdict in the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby is widely seen by Americans and observers around the world as the first step in the gradual ouster of US Vice President Dick Cheney, at whose side Mr. Libby served for many years. The mood seems to be that either the current master of the White House himself hands over his vice president (as he gave up Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld not too long ago), or the Democrats will have him removed. However, that conclusion might still be premature.
It would seem that there are many reasons to believe that Dick Cheney is destined for a fall. First of all, Lewis Libby, his former aide and chief of staff, personally sold his boss down the river by telling the jury that it was Mr. Cheney himself who gave the order to leak the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame. Consequently, all of Mr. Cheney's previous testimony that he had nothing to do with the exposure of Ms. Plame's identity, which he gave under oath, can now be seen as a deliberate lie.
And that is far from being the only transgression that could lead to Dick Cheney's departure. Last year Mr. Cheney played a key role in the run-up to the November congressional elections, in which the Republicans suffered a resounding defeat. In addition, the massive failure of America's Iraq campaign, which has turned the sympathies of the majority of Americans towards the Democrats, also hangs heavy on the vice president's conscience – after all, he is considered the chief strategist of the war in Iraq. One could also mention that, on a hunting trip almost exactly a year ago, Dick Cheney accidentally shot well-known lawyer Harry Whittington, who miraculously survived. Such incidents are sufficient grounds to argue that it is time for Mr. Cheney's political career to come to an end.
Nevertheless, Dick Cheney isn't going anywhere. His exit would be too high a price for the current US administration, one that it cannot afford to pay.
This was confirmed recently by George Bush himself in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, many of whose fellows worked or continue to work in the White House, Mr. Bush stated categorically that "you'll need to wait for two more years before another one of your colleagues joins you – Dick Cheney is busy."
And the issue here is not that Dick Cheney is George Bush's right hand, since the White House has occasionally been known to sacrifice a limb in order to save the organism as a whole. It's just that Dick Cheney's position in the current administration is unique. He has served four Republican presidents – Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and the two George Bushes, elder and younger. According to people in the know, his influence over the current US president is unprecedented in American history. The opinion even circulates that it wasn't George Bush Junior who chose Dick Cheney as his "number two" – in fact, it was Cheney who chose George Bush to be his "number one."
So President Bush could make Donald Rumsfeld the scapegoat for the failure of the Iraq war. But he cannot surrender Dick Cheney. After all, without Cheney, the current US administration wouldn't be George Bush's administration anymore.
Gennady Sysoyev
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 09, 2007
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