Quack!

D. CHENEY: No. I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. But I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

Over on my NiemanWatchdog.org site, I suggest that the press should ask Bush for some objective benchmarks for success in Iraq.

More From Cheney on King

"KING: Well . . . what did you make of Bob Woodward's comment recently that you're going to be a candidate for president?

"D. CHENEY: Well, he didn't clear that with me in advance.

"KING: Anything to that?

"D. CHENEY: Well, Larry, I have to explain to everybody, I signed on for a tour with President Bush. I thought I had left government in 1993. I'd had 25 great years. And looked at running for president myself in 1994/95 and decided not to do it. Went off to private life and enjoyed that very much. Then then-Governor Bush persuaded me to sign on as his running mate five years ago, and I've been delighted that I did that. It's been a great decision. It's been a phenomenal time to be here. I love working with him.

"But I've got about a little over -- a little less than four years to go now, and I'll have done eight years. By then, I'll be 98 years -- 68-years-old in 2009, when we finish the tour, and I've got other things I'd like to go do. So I have no plans to run for any other office.

"KING: So, if they ask you it's a no.

"D. CHENEY: That's right."

The Associated Press reports from the interview: "Vice President Dick Cheney says he's offended by a human rights group's report criticizing conditions at the prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay."

And Reuters reports: "First lady Laura Bush would defeat U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton if the two were to face each other in the 2008 presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Monday."

The Whole Cheney Family

Todd S. Purdum profiles the Cheney daughters in the New York Times: "The big sister is the first deputy assistant secretary of state ever to have her own Secret Service detail, having passed up lucrative offers to become a television commentator for the privilege of promoting democracy in the Middle East. The little sister may well be the first previously unknown presidential campaign aide to earn a million-dollar advance for her memoirs.

"But Elizabeth and Mary Cheney are no ordinary siblings - and their parents, Dick and Lynne, are no ordinary mom and dad. Like the Adamses, Roosevelts, Tafts, Kennedys, Gores and Bushes before them, they are a family act, a foursome fully immersed in conservative politics and public policy."

Social Security Watch

Jonathan Weisman writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush's congressional allies on Social Security are limping into the week-long Memorial Day recess, battered by public opinion polls yet hopeful that a rising awareness of Social Security's long-run financing problems will propel a legislative solution.

"But with just 49 legislative days left before Congress's planned adjournment, the odds are still against Bush securing the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, Republican lawmakers concede. . . .

"White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Washington is exactly where Bush strategists thought it would be right now on Social Security, with a rising awareness of the system's problems and Congress entering a summertime legislative push."

Julie Hirschfeld Davis writes in the Baltimore Sun: "Bush is increasingly targeting his Social Security push to minorities and younger people - groups that disproportionately vote Democratic - in efforts to reap electoral benefits for Republicans even if he ultimately fails to enact his proposal."

The President's Closest Aide

Elisabeth Bumiller profiles 25-year-old Blake Gottesman in the New York Times: "Part Sherpa, part butler, part air traffic controller, Mr. Gottesman, 25, is the president's personal aide. . . .

"Mr. Gottesman, who dated the president's daughter Jenna in high school, provides a glimpse into the prosaic behind-the-Oval-Office-doors daily life of the modern White House and the needs and habits of Mr. Bush. Few people spend more waking hours with the president, and almost no one is better, senior aides say, at anticipating his next move."

Crying Shame

Pam Greene writes in the Syracuse Post-Standard: "President Bush bored Brittany Fish to tears Wednesday, prompting the leader of the free world to apologize to the little girl for being so dull. . . .

"Brittany, who is now 7, was abducted from her scooter in Syracuse a year ago and found alive a day later in DeWitt. She was in Washington to meet the president in honor of National Missing Children's Day. About 30 people were invited to meet the president, including Fish and her mom, Patty DeMore. . . .

"Apparently Bush launched into a rather long-winded speech about the significance of the Oval Office. Brittany - usually a bundle of giggles - got antsy, complained she was bored, then started to cry."

Impeachment Watch?

Lame-duck murmurs are one thing. But impeachment murmurs, at this point, appear to be almost solely the province of Ralph Nader and Kevin Zeese, writing in an op-ed in the Boston Globe: "The impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, should be part of mainstream political discourse," they write.

"The president and vice president have artfully dodged the central question: 'Did the administration mislead us into war by manipulating and misstating intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to Al Qaeda, suppressing contrary intelligence, and deliberately exaggerating the danger a contained, weakened Iraq posed to the United States and its neighbors?'

"If this is answered affirmatively Bush and Cheney have committed 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' It is time for Congress to investigate the illegal Iraq war as we move toward the third year of the endless quagmire that many security experts believe jeopardizes US safety by recruiting and training more terrorists. A Resolution of Impeachment would be a first step. Based on the mountains of fabrications, deceptions, and lies, it is time to debate the 'I' word."