Notice how often this phrase creeps into the reportage concerning San Fran Nan? Remember how the Media implying that Newt was 'too big for his britches' during the fiasco over Air Force 1? The contrast is interesting isn't it?
This point has been brought up in every column that I have seen on this story, and outside of Tom Clancy novels, it remains just as irrelevant. The President and the VP are virtually never in the same spot at the same time other than at the SOTU, where the VP is seated right next to the House Speaker. Should anything happen to the VP, he would be replaced immediately (probably by Karl Rove at this point in the Bush Presidency). So, being "third in line" actually means next to nothing, and should anything happen to Bush and Cheney simultaneously, they could just as easily be replaced by the President pro tempore of the Senate or the Secretary of State. The American people didn't vote for Nancy Pelosi, just the City Of Fruits And Nuts.