Dumb question: Can Bush FIRE Cheney?

[yurbud]

If all the palace intrigue rumors are true, more realistic voices are being heard in the White House and actually acted on, but Cheney is trying to work at cross purposes.

Can Bush fire him? I don't mean emotionally or perhaps even politically, but constitutionally.

Personally, I would rather see both of them impeached and removed, but firing Cheney would probably move the Iran War off the table for the rest of the Bush administration, and give Bush a scapegoat to blame for all of his epic foreign policy disasters.

It would also let Bush limp to the end of his term, which he would like, and leave Bush in place as a punching bag, which Democrats in Congress seem to want.

[flyingfysh]

1. Bush can't fire Cheney

Cheney was elected to the position; he was not appointed by Bush. The only way to forcibly remove him is to impeach him. It's in the Constitution.

[krispos42]

2. No

Cheney is elected by the people.

Bush can, however, revoke all the special orders and privilages that make him co-president. Cheney by law and Constitution only has three powers: oversee the Senate, break ties in the Senate, and replace a dead or disabled or resigned or impeached president.

[Recursion]

7. He has additional statutory authorities

Such as being chairman of NASA and a member of the Smithsonian board (chaired by the SCOTUS Chief Justice, oddly enough); those could be removed by statue or executive order. He could also lose his delegated authority to meet and accredit ambassadors, again by either statute or executive order.

But yeah, it's a very deliberate part of the Constitution's design that a President can do absolutely nothing to keep an elected Vice President from exercising his Constitutional authority as President of the Senate.

[krispos42]

9. Cheney's the head of NASA?

Oy vey... :scared:

Thanks for the info!

[Recursion]

3. No

The Vice President is a Constitutionally-defined office elected by the Electoral College. The Vice-President can be impeached, but cannot be "fired".

In practical terms, however, I doubt any Vice President, including even Cheney, would refuse to step down if the President asked him to.

[NYC Liberal]

6. Yeah but I'm sure Cheney has sufficient dirt on Bush that

Bush couldn't force him to do anything. Cheney really only cares about himself in the end, so he'd have no qualms about throwing Bush overboad.

[NYC Liberal]

4. No, but he could keep him out of pretty much everything.

Constitutionally his only role is to be President of the Senate and break tie votes. So if Bush essentially shut him out, that's all he'd be doing.

[Robbien]

5. Why would Bush do a thing such as that?

All the work flows through the OVP. Bush wouldn't even know how to go about firing anyone. He would have to go through Cheney to fire Cheney. Ha!

[yurbud]

12. to save himself

[Recursion]

14. Bush has shown a remarkable talent for throwing supposedly indispensable people under the bus

I don't think Dick is any different from Rumsfeld in that sense, and I think Dick knows it which is why he's kept such a low profile lately.

[TahitiNut]

8. Nope. (Cheney's the boss.)

:shrug:

[Enrique]

10. could Lamb Chop fire Shari Lewis?

[Name removed]

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[sellitman]

15. Great analogy!

:rofl:

[originalpckelly]

20. Indeed, the perfect analogy.

[Name removed]

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[NV Whino]

16. No

Only Donald Trump can fire him.

[EFerrari]

17. No, Deadeye Dick would have to resign or be impeachetd. n/

[MonkeyFunk]

18. No

it's a constitutional office.

But in practice, most VPs would step aside if asked to.

[originalpckelly]

19. No, the VP is elected.