Here’s another call to impeach Dick Cheney.

If you haven’t yet, read or skim this fascinating four-part series the Washington Post ran this week about how Cheney combines his extensive knowledge of how the executive branch works (based on his years of government experience) with his obsession with secrecy to get whatever policies put into place that he wants. It’s a clicheé that Cheney pulls Bush’s strings, but there’s a lot of truth behind it.

The thing is – what would impeaching Cheney really accomplish? Not much, necessarily.

All the Constitution says about the vice-president’s duties is that (1) he becomes president if the president dies and (2) he breaks tie votes in the Senate. What Dick Cheney’s actually done in the White House has nothing to do with the vice presidency. If Cheney’s impeached, what will happen? So he won’t be able to break tie votes in the Senate anymore? Big deal. There’s nothing to prevent Bush from allowing Cheney to continue doing whatever he’s been doing even if he’s not the Vice President. After all, look at Karl Rove’s influence, and he’s not even an elected official.

The only reason it would be useful to impeach Cheney would be to prevent him from being president if Bush were impeached. That’s about it.