Cheney's Resignation - Too Much to Hope For?

Until last night, it was only a wild dream that Cheney might be forced to resign. But then I checked Steve Clemons’ The Washington Note and read Steve’s take on the consequences to Cheney of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s opening statement in the CIA leak trial yesterday alleging that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied about Cheney's early involvement in the disclosure of a spy's [Valerie Plame] identity.

Steve then compared the presence of newly confirmed Supreme Court Associate Justice Alito as Bush’s “ornament of success” in his 2006 SOTU address to Cheney’s presence at last night’s SOTU: “Tonight, Cheney won't be an ornament of success -- but rather a ball and chain dragging him down and reminding Americans about Iraq, the Valerie Plame affair, cherry-picking of intelligence, and official duplicity and corruption.”

Why do I care if Cheney resigns if Bush is still in office? Because I agree with Phil Burk, http://www.impeachbush.tv/,* that the best impeachment scenario is for Cheney to vacate the office by impeaching him first or, better yet, by his resignation, thereby forcing Bush to appoint a Veep who couldn’t possibly be as bad as Cheney. Then we put pressure on Congress to impeach Bush!

Even Nancy Pelosi, who may be modestly disavowing the possibility of becoming President if Bush and Cheney are both impeached at the same time, might put impeachment “back on the table” if Cheney resigns.

*Phil reserved the website shortly after Bush was elected in 2000, thinking he might need it in the future.