As our current nears his fate, I feel it’s worth noting that all 45 previous Vice Presidents of the United States have been interesting creatures.
None, however, have proved to be as unusual as our gun-toting 46th, Richard Bruce Cheney, the purported 2nd most powerful man in America observed lurking in off-stage shrubbery bordering Wednesday’s Rose Garden photo op.
This morning, wider swathes of the blogosphere than my humble little corner have noted Cheney’s unusual aboveground lurking and some eagle-eyed commenters are speculating on the lifeless appearance of the left Cheney arm.
Arms aside, most Presidents, including the failed Ivy League Beta heading this unprecedented Bush Interregnum, have only one Vice President.
By dint of death, scandal and renominating conventions, seven American leaders have been served by two different Veeps and one, alone, by three separate heirs to what has become our American throne.
Only two Vice Presidents in history have held office with two differing Presidents in separate though successive terms.
One held Cabinet rank in two different governments within the continental United States and only one has presided over a separate shadow government not specified in the Constitution and officially grandfathered the lesbian birth of a grandson.
While the co-joined fate of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney are still media-cleansed stories in progress, Wednesday’s telling visual metaphor of a shrubbery-lurking presidential shadow coupled with nearly seven years of wide-ranging Chaney lore makes it perfectly clear that our current veepish occupant will definitively reside in an unparalleled and hopefully lonely historic niche.
Blog and press speculations on the Vice President’s top secret health based upon a few seconds sighting of a limp left arm seem fair, however, my prurient, pajama-clad and trash cable-ready brain wants to know if Mr. Cheney’s no doubt pricy leather loafers lingered near or upon the exact spots where presidential pets Barney and Mrs. Beasley have exercised their, (ahem!), official outdoor pet duties…

Photos: AFP, Reuters
- posted by Sean @ 3:33 PM