Why the rush to get US Vice President Cheney back on the job?
Under the US Constitution, the vice president of the United States has no prescribed duties except the largely formal one of presiding over the Senate, where he exercises only the power to cast a deciding vote in the event of a tie. Otherwise, the vice president is held in reserve, to succeed to the presidency in the event of death or incapacity of the president. Something very different is at work in the Bush administration, as evidenced by the obscene haste in rushing Richard Cheney back to work after his angioplasty, the second serious heart procedure the vice president has undergone in four months. Cheney left George Washington University Medical Center Tuesday morning and returned directly to work in his official residence. He was back at his desk in the White House the following day. Angioplasty is a medical procedure with serious consequences even in the best of circumstances, and Cheney’s are hardly the best. The vice president is 60 years old and has had heart disease for at l
