—Steve Earle, "Condi"

Condoleezza Rice for president? The idea isn’t new, but last week when first lady Laura Bush suggested that it’s time for a woman president and that Condi would be terrific, you do wonder.

And Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, this week raised the issue of impeachment of the president over the domestic-spying controversy. Then, you really start thinking, oh no, not Cheney as president. But there is a way out.

Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will lead the investigation into the legality of President Bush ordering the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance of Americans beginning after the 9/11 attacks.

The NSA carried out the monitoring of e-mail and phone communications without the warrants required from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The president has justified bypassing those warrants, citing his office’s constitutional charge to defend the country and congressional authorization for him to respond to the 9/11 attacks.

But Specter and many others aren’t convinced by those arguments. Numerous instances have surfaced of abuses of the surveillance, which was and is supposed to be only directed at people with links to al Qaida.

Two civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, this week filed lawsuits against the Bush administration over the NSA spying. Anti-war groups also have alleged that they were victims of the overzealous surveillance of Americans.

The question of the legality of Bush’s eavesdropping program will be at the center of congressional hearings as early as next month.

Specter, however, a Republican, isn’t suggesting impeachment as a consequence of a possible finding that Bush broke the law by ordering the domestic spying. He seems to believe that the political fallout that Bush would suffer would be enough of a penalty.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to rule out impeachment, however. A lot of Americans apparently have not.

Pollster John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, told the Institute for Public Accuracy on Wednesday that a survey found a slight majority of respondents — 51.7 percent — agreed Congress should consider holding Bush accountable through impeachment for the NSA surveillance program.

If that’s not enough, a companion poll showed that 48.5 percent of respondents thought the president should face the possibility of impeachment if it’s proved he lied about the reasons for invading Iraq.

And we know that if Bush didn’t lie about weapons of mass destruction, then he was so ignorant of our flawed intelligence that he probably should be removed from office anyway.

OK, let’s assume the president gets what he deserves. We’re left with that Cheney problem again. If he assumes power, there’s no point in removing Bush because the vice president has been the one calling most of the shots.

Cheney’s office has been in enough trouble of its own, what with his chief deputy accused of leaking the names of spies. Besides, the vice president likely realizes his heart just couldn’t handle the pressures of the White House. His arteries may be as clogged as the FDR Drive during rush hour.

That’s why if Bush thinks he’s gotta go, he’ll have Cheney resign and appoint Secretary of State Rice vice president. She’s as loyal as a hound dog and smarter than a whip. After all, she taught Bush most of what he knows about foreign policy, since all he got from Cheney was that there’s an axis of evil.

Yes, it was funny last week to hear Laura say Condi was terrific, and in response see that Condi said Laura was a terrific person. What is it with all the "terrifics"?

The White House would like nothing more, apparently, than to set up Condi, 51, as the next president, especially if she has to fight off McCain and then Hillary to get there.

It would be something special to have as president a black woman who was in a church in Birmingham, Ala., just a few blocks from the bombing in September 1963 that killed four black girls. Condi was friends with one of the victims.

Someone who climbed through the ranks of academia and Washington by using her brains and will; someone who learned early on that she not only could be whatever she wanted, but was entitled to be.

When that attitude of entitlement is carried over into foreign policy, however, and you get tied up with the Bushies and Cheney, look out. Suddenly the United States is entitled to dominate the Middle East and Iraq, and do anything it takes to advance American interests.

But it seems most people respect Condi. Her approval rating is much better than the president’s. She may be cold and calculating, but, free of the Bush/Cheney network, she could be a hot president.

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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.