Dick Cheney ready for Elephant's Graveyard?

Peggy Noonan has been drinking the wrong Kool-Aid. Living in Manhattan, she has become affected by the contact vibes with the amygdalectomized inhabitants [cfr: Tom Wolfe and I am Charlotte Simmons] And someone needs to edit her op-eds.

Peggy believes Cheney should resign. Actually, I agree that Cheney is a large minus in the political polling jousts that gather the rapt attention of the MSM pundits [unless of course the poll demonstrates that Bush is getting more popular, which relegates the "news" to way inside the NYT, LAT, WaPo, or Globe].

But even though Cheney may be the iron bar in Bush's house of cards, which is overstating the situation, he must be succeeded by someone. Peggy expatiates:

This new vice president would, however, have to be very popular in the party, or the party wouldn't buy it. Replacing Mr. Cheney would be chancy. The new veep would have to get through the Senate, which has at this point at least three likely contenders for the nomination, at least two of whom who would not, presumably, be amused.

Senators McCain, Brownback, Graham, and Hagel are all potential '08 candidates, plus I may have left out a couple more Republican Senators who secretly lust in their hearts for a run at the Oval Office. So at least three Republicans would be against. Peggy repeats herself:

It would have to be a man wildly popular in the party and the press. And it would have to be a decision made by Dick Cheney. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't have to. If he were pressed--Dick, we gotta put the next guy in here or we're going to lose in '08 and see all our efforts undone--he might make the decision himself. He'd have to step down on his own. He's just been through a trauma, and he can't be liking his job as much now as he did three years ago. No one on the downside of a second term does

The only man wildly popular in the press might be John McCain, and he is not wildly popular in the party. Unlike the Dem philosophy of Nancy Pelosi, you can't replace something with nothing, or in this case, somebody with nobody.

So who is Peggy thinking of? Or is she simply succumbing to the hysteria vibes prevailing in Manhattan? Or is she on a secret quest on behalf of Giuliani and Pataki, both of whom are not Senators, but acceptable to the Blue-State Republicans she rubs shoulders with?

She should declare her colors, or at least suggest several alternatives to the widely dislike incumbent in the VEEP's chair.

And also remind her readers that the hysterical MSM frothes at the mouth over the slightest peccadillo on the right, while letting maniacs like Al Gore rant at will against the USA without a peep [the NYT, LAT, WaPo, and Globe all neglected even a mention of Gore's treasonous attacks on America during his visit to Saudi Arabia].