This week's column:Their best shot at dumping Dick

Of all the ways Dick Cheney could have picked to get himself out of office, one that I wouldn’t have predicted is shooting a lawyer. Not that it was a bad idea; it just seems a little obvious.

Of course, they have to find some way to appoint somebody like Mitt Romney vice president before 2008, to give a Republican an incumbents’-eye view in the next presidential election. After those initial weasly accounts about how Harry Whittington had jumped in front of the quail like an overprotective Secret Service agent, it looked like Cheney might have found his way out.

But then Dick took the blame and is soldiering on for now, so it’s up to Karl Rove and the Republican political machine (motto: "Leaks? We got ’em") to come up a new way for Cheney to step aside for the "right reasons." Preferably something that will result in the vice president leaving office but still looking decent and manly, like getting run over by a team of stallions.

For the rest of this week's AT LARGE by Peter Chianca, click here.