Is Cheney stepping aside?

I encountered a rumour the other day, fueled by speculation and web gossip, but also with an historical and political foundation to the political strategy it exposes:

Is the White House going to shuffle Cheney?

In other words, will the White House bow to political will and remove an even more despised Vice President than an unpopular and lame duck President, in hopes of annointing a successor and attempting to give the Republican Party a chance in 2008 to hang onto the White House? It is conceivable, given Cheney's medical history, that there will be a move to have him step down for medical reasons, clearing the way for Bush, in consultation with his party, to select someone they can lend at least part of the powers of incumbency to for the President Race of 2008.

It would be placing the party ahead of the people and certainly create an instant "heir apparent", but if it is to be done, it needs to be done within the next six months or so to be effective and not completely transparent. Smart political observers see many problems with both Giuliani and McCain, problems that render them dangerous to the party in 2008: McCain has a raft of labels that Bush's mean-spirited campaign of 2000 saddled him with, while Giuliani has a troubled marital past that may alienate the evangelical middle-America base.

The party has become a victim of the debt that the short term gains the selling of its soul to slick and amoral political operatives like Karl Rove as it comes due.

We shall see if Cheney hangs on for another, of if again party expediency changes the history of the United States.