Thank God for Vice President Cheney

With lefties squawking "Halliburton, Halliburton" like a gaggle of demented parrots, Vice President Dick Cheney has routinely been the focus of scorn and derision from those who offer nothing but vitriol to the political process.

With the second inauguration of President Bush and Vice President Cheney in a few days it is time to reflect and indeed give thanks that Mr. Cheney was selected to serve with Mr. Bush. Here's an excerpt of an excellent analysis:

My Point: David M. Shribman / The Cheney effect: "The tension between a vice presidential office and the Oval Office is no 'West Wing'' fiction; it's inherent in the relationship of a politician who is a president and another who is vice president merely because he thinks it might be a good way to become president someday.

Bush's relationship to Cheney is completely different, which is one of the reasons that Democrats find the vice president so provocative and their inability to reach him politically so frustrating. Unlike his predecessors, Cheney is virtually immune to political punishment. He won't have to answer for his views, decisions or maneuvers at a town meeting in Iowa or at a candidates' forum in New Hampshire. He can't be made uncomfortable in public or repudiated at the polls.

Cheney is, in effect, politically invulnerable.
...
In the meantime, Cheney's reluctance to run for president himself means that the nominations of both parties are completely open. There is no heir presumptive, no front-runner. It is an unusual situation -- and unusually refreshing.

That means both the Republicans and Democrats will be able to consider their candidates in a far different context than they are accustomed. No Air Force II swooping into Cedar Rapids, no immense security details fanning out into small towns in New Hampshire's north country.

It makes for a campaign that may be determined less by the size of a candidate's entourage and more by the size of a candidate's ideas. It makes for a campaign where, in the president's party, there is more openness to start anew and where, in the opposition's party, there is less incentive to refight battles that might be best left in the past.

It may mean, too, that the vice presidency has reached a new maturity. It could finally be a job to be done, not a steppingstone to another one. The legacy from this administration could well come from both halves of the ticket.