They say of US vice presidents that they are only a heartbeat away from becoming president. The unkind comment these days is that the current incumbent, Dick Cheney, is only a heartbeat away from not being vice president.
Veteran politician Cheney, who served as Gerald Ford’s White House chief of staff and was a staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan and returned to Cabinet office as defense secretary under George Bush Sr., had a quadruple bypass in 1988 and has been dogged with heart troubles ever since. He returned to his office this week after having a pacemaker fitted in the latest attempt by doctors to fix him up, but questions are now being asked about his continuing effectiveness as President George W. Bush’s shadow. At the very least, it is wondered if the man who could become president were some disaster to befall Bush, is now really up to the job.
Cheney has been of immense value to Bush, both before and after his election victory. He added gravitas to the Bush campaign, which might otherwise have been derailed by the candidate’s innocence of foreign affairs, to say nothing of his effortless mangling of the English language. When the election hung in the balance over the Florida count, Cheney deployed his immense political experience and savvy to see off the protests of the Gore camp. Now in an administration that is headed up by relatively inexperienced political animals, most particularly Colin Powell at State, the hands-on vice president adds an invaluable experience.
But for all this, the whispered question is, should he still be occupying the vice president’s office? Is it wise that he occupy a position of such potentially huge responsibility? The American constitution does not allow for an understudy but it does insist that even during an interregnum between presidents, someone stays in charge of the Oval Office.
It could be argued that if Cheney were called upon to become the most powerful individual in the world, his very first act would be to appoint his own vice president, thus ensuring the succession. But there is a considerable risk here and many argue that maybe the point has almost been reached where that risk is unacceptable. One suggested solution, which would not deprive the president of Cheney’s advice and guidance, is to create a non-portfolio Cabinet post for him, so that he could be around the White House as and when needed. Cheney would step down from the post of vice president, to be replaced by a more robust incumbent.
One argument against this is that, in the end, the American voters chose the Bush-Cheney ticket. However, there was the case of Gerald Ford, Cheney’s first political boss, who came to the presidency having first replaced Richard Nixon’s disgraced Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and thereafter succeeded Nixon himself when the tide of Watergate finally overwhelmed him. No one questioned his legitimacy while he occupied the Oval Office.
There is tragedy here. Cheney has dedicated his life to the Republican cause and has a splendid record of public service. Unfortunately, just when he reached the apex of his political career, illness has intervened.
