The news that Cheney's shooting victim suffered a heart attack today due to a pellet migrating to his heart should make us think seriously about who might become a new Veep.
The package deal the GOP offered voters back in 2000 sounded pretty good: "Sure, Bush Junior is a bit of a nimrod, but he'll have steady old Dick Cheney around to keep him from messing up." Bush has performed as advertised, but something -- and we still don't know what -- went wrong with Cheney.
So, if Cheney has to go, Bush would still need a minder. But that's not the role that Condi Rice played during her disastrous four years as National Security Advisor. Instead, she was Bush's enabler, his morale bucker-upper. You know that combination deer-in-the-headlights / furtive look that Bush gets when he starts thinking, "Holy crap, I'm President of the United States and I'm a complete tool. Okay, stay calm, don't let those bastards see me sweat"?
Well, Condi's job was to make the President's frightening spells of self-awareness go away. She treated Bush the way Mr. Salter, the editor of the Daily Beast, treated his boss, Lord Copper, in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop:
"When Lord Copper was right he said 'Definitely, Lord Copper'; when he was wrong : 'Up to a point' . . . . "Let me see, what's the name of the place? Capital of Japan? Yokohama, isn't it?' 'Up to a point Lord Copper.' 'And Hong Kong belongs to us?' 'Definitely, Lord Copper'."
At this point, I'd guess that the best Veep / minder for the President would be his brother Jeb, but that's mostly a reflection of the sad state we're in.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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