Sandy Levinson wonders whether there is anything to be done about the risk of Dick Cheney becoming president.
Should our defective Constitution be amended to allow the removal of a vice president whenever, in the opinion of Congress, (s)he has demonstrated good cause for doubt about the capacity to fill the Oval Office? Many persons have attacked my argument for bounding a President on a "no-confidence" vote because, among other things, it would be destabilizing. I disagree, but reasonable arguments can be found on both sides. Why would any serious person, though, believe that it would be destabilizing to bounce a demented, delusional, quasi-fascistic vice-president whose habitation of the White House and gain of the vast powers of the presidency with regard to foreign policy and military affairs would quite literally threaten us all?
A more salient question is: what would be the real difference in policy between Dick Cheney being vice-president as he now is and his formally occupying the Oval Office? We may have to wait for history to tell us.