Cheney rejects his own argument

June 28, 2007

We’ve all been thoroughly entertained by Dick Cheney’s “unorthodox” argument that he is not part of the executive branch, a policy position the White House has refused to comment on.

Late Tuesday, the Office of the Vice President shifted its rhetoric a bit, arguing that Cheney ignored an executive order because the document exempted him from oversight. (Asked where the E.O. said this, Cheney’s lawyers declined comment. Apparently, you need some kind of decoder ring to read text that doesn’t exist.) Forget about that other argument, they said; it’s no longer operative.

Yesterday, in what I believe was a first, the White House said Cheney never liked that fourth-branch argument anyway.

A White House official placed further distance from the dual role argument by adding that Mr. Cheney did not necessarily agree with it.

See? Dick Cheney’s office started asserting a year ago that the Vice President isn’t part of the executive branch, but the gang has just now come to the conclusion that Cheney isn’t fond of his argument. What a relief.

If the White House doesn’t like the tack, and the VP doesn’t agree with it, and literate people everywhere recognize the argument as sheer nonsense, maybe now the White House can respond to questions about whether Cheney is part of the executive branch?

And if the argument has genuinely fallen out of favor at the White House, maybe someone can tell the Justice Department?

Gonzales & Co. have apparently been struggling with the question for several months. Maybe Cheney can give them a hand.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) continues his full-court press on Dick Cheney’s claims to be exempt from oversight on how his office handles classified information. In a just-released letter (pdf) to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Waxman — joined by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) — asks after the status of a DOJ review requested by the head of the Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office in January to settle the matter of whether the vice presidency resides in the executive branch. […]

The letter goes on to request information sure to make Gonzales’s life so much easier: who’s involved with the review, what work they’ve accomplished, what (if any) communications they’ve had with the White House or OVP on the question, whether DOJ has taken any position on which branch of government — if any! — the VP belongs to, and more. Closest to the bone, however, is this question: “When you were serving as White House Counsel, were you or anyone in your office involved with the drafting, assessing or otherwise reviewing proposed revisions to the Executive Order in 2003?”

Poor Gonzales & Co. have been mulling over this fairly easy question for months. If the White House no longer has use for the fourth-branch argument, maybe now the DoJ can let the process continue? Stay tuned.

Gonzales can’t even remember who he is or what he does for a living, so how could he be expected to remember legal arguments from three years ago?

Give the poor guy a break, he needs a vacation somewhere on a nice tropical island. I recommend Guantanimo Bay.

  • Impeach them both and they can have very long vacations, preferrably in a country that allows extradition.

  • I’d be much happier if Cheney would reject his own cardio-implant device.

    High in the air.

    Aboard Air Force Two.

    Thousands of miles from anywhere.

  • It is so obvious that Alberto “Big Pussy” Gonzales is the “inside man” on the Loyal Bushie Brownshirt Cabal that keeps the heat off from the Congressional Cops.

    Maybe Waxman’s latest “Dear Fredo” letter will help convince the rest of the capitulant, complicit Dems that it is time to bring articles of impeachment against Gonzales, and charge him with perjury, obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress.

    Then maybe the American people can bring the rest of the Bush Laden Crime Family to justice under some very hot, bright flood lights, in public, under oath, with full transcript and worldwide press coverage and without access to legal counsel (just the way they like it).

  • Last night on Olbermann, Jonathan Turley made an apt comparison to any number of defense attorneys playing the system for all it’s worth, switching from one defense to another just to see if anything “sticks”.

    This is the kind of behavior that is to be expected from criminals.

  • Cheney is so great that he, like Whitman, contains multitudes.

    He doesn’t contradict himself, he contains antinomies.

    Big difference.

    🙂

  • Cheney’s most recent rejection of accountability and revelations in the WaPost series are further evidence of why he is, in fact, our “vice” president.

    Gonzo, on the other hand, continues to function not as head of the DOJ but as WH defense counsel and Obstructor in Chief.

  • Cheney’s work as 4thBranch/5thColumn seems to be mostly done now. And the only way he can avoid oversight and accountability is by reclaiming the executive priviledge and milking that one for as long as he can. So, he lets go of the old argument. More weeks and months will pass while the new impasse is being resolve\d.

    The WH, BTW, has announced its intent to ignore subpoenas (make me!). Even managed to stick in a little snide comment along the lines of “can’t see why you’d need all those documents”

    It really should be either the Hague or straight to Gitmo for the Bush, Cheney, Gonzo trojka (skip the impeachement). According to a recent Op-Ed in NYT, it’s very comfortable there, despite its (undeservedly) bad reputation. Maybe Addington could join them there, too.

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