T1B

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_ ... ey_surgery

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney will undergo an elective surgery next weekend to treat an aneurysm in an artery behind his right knee.

The condition, discovered earlier this year during a routine checkup, needs to be treated "as to not become a problem over time," Steve Schmidt, counselor to the vice president, said Friday.

"The procedure will be performed under local anesthetic," Schmidt said. "It will take place next weekend. It will involve a short hospital stay. The vice president will return to work shortly thereafter."

Schmidt said more details will be announced next week.

Cheney, 64, has had four heart attacks, though none since he became vice president in 2001. That year, he had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator inserted in his chest. The pacemaker starts automatically if needed to regulate his heartbeat.

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And the GOP is talking about this guy running for Prez in '08? Even if I agreed with all of the guy's politics, I'd have a tough time voting for him considering his health record. I mean, do we really want an American version of late 1970's Breznev or Yuri Andropov in the White House?

The repubs will be desperate indeed if all they have is dead man walking to represent them in '08.

I'm guessing he'll say no, if he even makes it that far.

God forbid he croaks in office. You don't wanna have to say "Interim V.P. John Hastert"

We don't want another Gerald Ford.

Maybe they could get Dan Quayle to run for VP again.

Mikey wrote:Maybe they could get Dan Quayle to run for VP again.

Sounds like Dumb & Dumber Part Tray.

Dick Cheney is still alive? Who would have thought?

I think this is the first news on Cheney I've heard since the election. I like the guy, but having a Vice President just disappear for months on end with all that is going on is not a good thing. If he is not healthy enough to do his job, he needs to let it go and let someone else handle it.

Then again, what really is the responsibility of the VP? Probably not much, but at least you hope the guy that is "one heartbeat away" from leading this country is at least enjoying a fairly dependable heartbeat of his own.

As for 08, I don't see how anyone could think of Cheney as an option, and he has already said he has no such ambition. If he was running for office, he wouldn't be so invisible now.

With Bush at two terms and no VP that wants to run, getting to the point of the Republican side of the ticket in 08 will be interesting. On one side you have the Newt Gingrich followers, old Jack Kemp folks like me who are wondering who the hell talks to us anymore, and the neo-cons who worship the ground Santorum walks on. Newt is history, Kemp and folks who have followed his lead are history (although Bush sounded a lot like Kemp last week in New Orleans), and Santorum is the future.

Santorum is ripe for a scandal or some other major meltdown.
I don't know what it will be, it's just a feeling. Politicians who are that self-righteous always seem so implode at some point.

Mikey wrote:Santorum is ripe for a scandal or some other major meltdown.
I don't know what it will be, it's just a feeling. Politicians who are that self-righteous always seem so implode at some point.

Well, I did utter a fatasy about man on dog sex. Not that it is illegal; in PA or anything...

Wouldn't it be cheaper to put him to sleep?

Bu$h could read him a nighty night story.
He's good at doing that.