It’s said that when Dick Cheney was tasked with vetting potential Veeps for the Bush campaign, he carefully considered all the applicants before recommending the best man for the job: himself. Perhaps tearing a page from Vader’s playbook, Dark Lord Balthazar – AKA Gawker Media Czar Nick Denton – has found the ideal replacement to helm his flagship website in the wake of managing editor Choire Sicha’s resignation: an eager young go-getter from sector 7G named... Nick Denton! (We interviewed Sicha in the midst of all that drama.)

Two weeks ago, after Sicha and two other staffers bailed, a resume request was posted on Gawker, just one of 14 blogs in the multi-million dollar Gawker Media Empire controlled by Denton. The job posting revealed Denton’s desire to steer the site in the direction of news-gathering; the Times quotes from the posting in an article today: “It’s no longer enough to take stories from The New York Times, and add a dash of snark.” The Times still has no qualms taking stories from Gawker and adding a dash of dull.

We bet the Gawker staff is pumped to finally get more face time with the boss, though there’s no comment on the site yet, just a link to a post on Gawker Media’s Silicon Valley site Valleywag – which Denton edited for six months this year. He’s fond of reminding everyone that he doubled the site’s page views during his time there; the first commenter on Valleywag’s post wonders if he’ll be paid per page views like the other Gawker writers.

Responding to our request for comment, outgoing managing editor Choire Sicha had this to say: "I think it's the most awesome thing in the history of awesome things ever! I can't wait to read Gawker '08." Former Gawker managing editor Lockhart Steele also dropped the A bomb in his comment: "It's going to be something awesome to see." Former Gawker "mascot" Andrew Krucoff has also weighed in:

Just when we thought it was safe to ignore Gawker forever, Denton pulls us back in. He's a rich gay Jewish Brit in New York who loves the "game". You'd be a fool to bet against him. Not that the outcome makes a difference, but I will be cheering and booing the whole way.