Is Nancy Pelosi President of the United States — and unaware of it?

According to today's 9:33 a.m. (ET) story by Deb Riechmann on WashingtonPost.com, President Bush, about to undergo anesthesia for a colonoscopy, transferred presidential authority at 7:16 a.m. this morning to Dick Cheney.

Cheney became acting president at that moment and will remain in that capacity until Bush sends "... follow-up letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. [above] and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., president pro tempore of the Senate, advising them that he immediately [is] resuming the powers of his office."

I wonder if news of a sudden medical emergency involving Cheney — say, a recurrence of his previous problems with venous thrombosis and multiple heart attacks, perhaps causing his implanted cardiac defibrillator to discharge — would make it out of the temporary seat of power on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Cheney is said to be at the moment.

My bet is no — that such destabilizing, disturbing information would never, ever see the light of day until the publication of Cheney's memoirs, when he'd drop that bomb.

Instead, the office of the acting president would simply sit on it until Bush emerged from his anesthetic, at which time he'd send his letters and resume his job.

President Pelosi?

A Democratic Party fever dream.