Foreign ministries and presidential offices abroad: Is Cheney losing his influence, or his mind?

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: 'What Has Happened to Dick Cheney?'
By Jim Hoagland
Thursday, March 8, 2007; Page A23

Is the vice president losing his influence, or perhaps his mind? That question, even if it is phrased more delicately, is creeping through foreign ministries and presidential offices abroad and has become a factor in the Bush administration's relations with the world.

"What has happened to Dick Cheney?" That solicitous but direct question came from a European statesman who has known the vice president for many years. He put it to me a few days ago -- even before the discovery of a blood clot in Cheney's leg and the perjury conviction of Scooter Libby, his former chief of staff, brought headline attention to the volatile state of the vice president's physical, emotional and political health.

It is not new for Americans to question whether their leaders have become delusional....What is unusual is for foreigners to think about a vice president at all and to question what effect the VP's moods and internal policy defeats have on America's standing in the world.

But what goes up must come down. In the first term, Cheney was styled as the most influential vice president in history -- in more lurid versions, an evil puppeteer pulling George W. Bush's strings. So now his irascibility in television interviews triggers diplomatic cables analyzing his equilibrium -- as well as inspiring a booming industry of scathing cartoons and television one-liners here at home....

***

....listen up, diplomats: However beleaguered, Cheney will not resign over the president's refusal to take his advice. The only force that could drive him to that dramatic step would be that unshakable sense of loyalty to Bush, who desperately now needs a vice president in stable physical, emotional and political health. That is the equation you want to be watching.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/07/AR2007030702044.html?nav=hcmodule

[opihimoimoi]

1. Nothing happened to him...He still is an ole greedy bastard..lying and bullying his way through life

Arrogant and spoiled...he cares nothing for us ....the little peeps.

[Hekate]

2. Well, a lot of us think he's batshit crazy...if the rest of the world starts treating him as such...

...life could get even more interesting. Not pleasant, but interesting.

Other than that, Cheney is pretty much the same SOB he's always been.

Hekate

[Eurobabe]

3. He is a physically ill man, from all of his health conditions and drugs

he must take to remain a 'dead man walking.' Seriously, this dude needs to step down, like yesterday.

[az chela]

4. Since he has no mind to lose I guess he is crazy

[DeepModem Mom]

5. a.m. kick -- I had no idea there was concern abroad that Cheney might have lost it. nt