Note to Cheney: The title is 'Vice President', not 'Viceroy'

[Richardo]

My take on the latest outrage, published on a small RW blog. All comments welcome:

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Once again, Dick Cheney is in the forefront to protect the government of the United States from its most heinous and feared enemy, the people of the United States.

In an assertion that flies in the face of everything that generations of Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and school children in Civics classes throughout the country thought they knew, the Veep (or "Dick") calmly states that the Office of the Vice President is not an entity within the executive branch. (I know.) His rather metaphysical reasoning is that since he has a role in the Congress as President of the Senate, he occupies a ghostly utopian nether-world between the Executive and Legislative branches - a world above such mundane earthly concerns as public accountability and adherence to the mere 'Laws of Man'.

Plus, as a back-up strategy, he reverts to the Latter-Day GOP strategy of changing (or just ignoring) those rules that you don't like, and daring anyone to do anything about it.

Let's see if we can divine the inner meaning below the surface of this controversy, using a fair and balanced AP story on the matter. My insightful comments will be italicized and <enclosed in brackets> :
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WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats <those swine! > on Thursday denounced Vice President Dick Cheney's idea of abolishing a government office <!> charged with safeguarding national security information <!!> - and criticized him for refusing to cooperate with the agency.

Cheney's office - over the objections of the National Archives <No doubt a George Soros-financed leftist front group whose sole agenda is to bash the Bush Administration> - has exempted itself from a presidential executive order <apparently signed by Bush without Cheney's permission> that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Under the order, executive branch offices are required to give the Information Security Oversight Office at the archives data on how much material it has classified and declassified.

Cheney's office provided the information in 2001 and 2002, then stopped. Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said Cheney's office claims it need not comply with the executive order because it is not an "entity within the executive branch." <I can't get enough of that quote.>

"Your decision to except your office from the president's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk," Waxman wrote in a letter to Cheney on Thursday. <He generously does not point out that it's also the stupidest thing he's ever heard>

Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for the vice president, said Cheney's office was not breaking the law, but did not elaborate. "We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law," she said. <You were confident Scooter Libby was operating properly under the law also, remember?>

The Information Security Oversight Office has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales <:rofl:> to resolve the legal dispute over whether the order applies to Cheney's office. So far, the Justice Department has not ruled on the issue. <Who's shocked and amazed? Show of hands?>

Waxman said J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, told the panel that after he sought advice from the Justice Department, Cheney's office recommended that the executive order be amended to abolish the ISOO. "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions," Waxman said.

Waxman said Leonard also told the panel that in 2004, Cheney's office blocked the archives from doing an onsite inspection of his office to make sure classified information was being properly protected. <Cheney: Our classification procedures are classified. Go away.>

"To my knowledge, this was the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Information Security Oversight Office that a request for access to conduct a security inspection was denied by a White House office," Waxman wrote. <Thirty years. That would cover Vice Presidents Mondale, Bush, Gore and 3 years of Cheney. Milksops, all of them.>

The eight-page letter asks Cheney to respond to a series of questions about why he believes his office is exempt, and what steps his office has taken to ensure that national security information is protected. <Note to Waxman: I hope you're not holding your breath.>
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Let's see: I've heard many a supporter of such diverse elements of the Bush security programs as warrantless wiretapping, intercepting mail, reviewing your library checkouts and book purchases, suspending habeas corpus, etc say: "Well sheoot, if you ain't done nothin' wrong, you got nothing to hide, gol durn it." (I live in Texas after all)

So by that logic, what does that say about the Veep's penchant for suffocating secrecy about every possible aspect of his job, including who visits his office, who provides the travel, and (God help us, please) who works for him?
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I'll let you know if I get any responses...

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Nice take!

Throw it right back into their faces!
If you aint done nutin' wrong...
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