All Intensive Purposes

At this hour, the lead story at SFGate.com is a piece by Tom Raum of the Associated Press suggested that Vice President Cheney's act is wearing thin on the GOP. His approval ratings are low, and the Libby commutation has brought (more) unwanted publicity. He's a punching bag for Democrats, of course, but Raum suggests that Cheney is losing Republican support, too:

Is anyone listening to Cheney any more?

The vice president shuffled alone and in silence out of a luncheon of Republican senators last week amid defections on Iraq by GOP senators and as the administration's immigration overhaul went down to defeat.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, branded as "unfounded" Cheney's claim to extra protections for his office because of his constitutional powers to preside over the Senate and break ties.

"I don't think he handles too many documents in that capacity. He handles a gavel. That's about all he handles," Specter said in an interview. . . .

Cheney has seen his influence wane with rank-and-file Republicans and even conservatives, once his most ardent supporters. They are uneasy about Cheney's signing onto Bush's attempt to liberalize immigration law; spread democracy in the Middle East, which they deride as "nation building"; the amassing of record budget deficits; and even Cheney's support for certain gay rights (a daughter, Mary, is openly lesbian).

"We don't feel we're invested in Cheney, because he hasn't — in any way we're aware of — carried any of our water in these 6 1/2 years," conservative activist Richard Viguerie said. . . .

"He must be an awfully bruised guy at this point. I think his star has set," said Thomas E. Cronin, a political science professor at Colorado College, where Cheney's wife, Lynne, and their daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, went to college.

All of this is incredibly misguided. Cheney does not rely on Arlen Specter or other Republican senators, and he does not need the support of of Richard Vigueroe or the esteem of political scientists to do what he does. Cheney's star will have set when -- and only when -- President Bush stops listening to him and shuts him out. And if you think that has happened, I have a bridge to sell you.