Vice President Edwards?

Vice President Cheney was taken to the George Washington University Hospital this morning, complaining of shortness of breath. I have great admiration for Mr. Cheney and I hope he recovers quickly. It is worth noting, however, that should his ailment persist or his ability to serve fall into doubt, there may be electoral consequences falling under the 12th Amendment. Given that the 538 electors each cast a vote for president and a vote for vice president, there are three possible scenarios:

1) If just 18 of the Bush/Cheney electors were to doubt Cheney's ability to serve and switch their vote from Cheney to Edwards, then the U.S. would have a Bush/Edwards administration.

2) If Cheney were to die or resign his office all 286 votes might be up for grabs. With Edwards just 18 votes from a majority, he would be the most likely to come away with the office - but he'd need to get a majority. Without a majority, the Senate would choose the vice president. It gets dicey here, because the Constitution says that the Senate must choose from the two vice presidential candidates with the highest electoral vote tally, and so it would be up the Bush/Cheney electors to agree among themselves on an acceptable alternative to Cheney before it got to the Senate. Dissension among Republicans could give the office to Edwards.

3) There's also a possibility that even in the face of Cheney's inability to serve, the GOP would remain steadfast and vote him in, and then let Bush choose a vice president as per the 25th Amendment. (Which is what the Democrats did in the 2000 Missouri U.S. Senate race.) The nominee would then have to be confirmed by a majority vote of both houses of Congress. I'm not sure if the Democrats would accept such a course, though, and they might bring the Supreme Court into the process to decide its legality.

Of course this might all be a ploy by Bush to give the vice presidency to Edwards and kill Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations once and for all.