WP op-ed, Walter Mondale on Cheney's Vice-Presidency: ANSWERING TO NO ONE

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Answering to No One
By Walter F. Mondale
Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page B07

....it wasn't until Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency that the vice presidency took on a substantive role. Carter saw the office as an underused asset and set out to make the most of it. He gave me an office in the West Wing, unimpeded access to him and to the flow of information, and specific assignments at home and abroad. He asked me, as the only other nationally elected official, to be his adviser and partner on a range of issues....

***

This all changed in 2001, and especially after Sept. 11, when Cheney set out to create a largely independent power center in the office of the vice president. His was an unprecedented attempt not only to shape administration policy but, alarmingly, to limit the policy options sent to the president....Through his vast government experience, through the friends he had been able to place in key positions and through his considerable political skills, he has been increasingly able to determine the answers to questions put to the president -- because he has been able to determine the questions. It was Cheney who persuaded President Bush to sign an order that denied access to any court by foreign terrorism suspects and Cheney who determined that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Rather than subject his views to an established (and rational) vetting process, his practice has been to trust only his immediate staff before taking ideas directly to the president. Many of the ideas that Bush has subsequently bought into have proved offensive to the values of the Constitution and have been embarrassingly overturned by the courts.

The corollary to Cheney's zealous embrace of secrecy is his near total aversion to the notion of accountability. I've never seen a former member of the House of Representatives demonstrate such contempt for Congress -- even when it was controlled by his own party. His insistence on invoking executive privilege to block virtually every congressional request for information has been stupefying -- it's almost as if he denies the legitimacy of an equal branch of government. Nor does he exhibit much respect for public opinion, which amounts to indifference toward being held accountable by the people who elected him....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072702126.html?nav=hcmodule

[book_worm]

1. Go Fritz! He would have been a wonderful president, too.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Bush allowed this to happen

Whether this is the function of Lt Governor in Texas I don't know.

Still no excuse.

[pnwmom]

3. This is unprecedented, for a former vice president to publicly castigate

a current one.

Good for him.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I think you're right -- calling Cheney out on extra-Constitutional use of the office. nt

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Fritz is one of the few people who knows what a VP is supposed to do

and calling Cheney out because he has not done what a VP should do was the correct action to take at this time.

[spanone]

6. history will hopefully treat cheney as the traitor to the constitution he has become

shame on bu$h* for destroying our once democratic nation.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. I've got an idea. From this point on, why don't we never again

elect a president whose most promising expectation is that he'll surround himself by experienced people to make up for his massive deficit in knowledge?

The Republicans voted a man in office who they most likely want as a NASCAR buddy, so I guess it's no surprise that our country is running on fumes.

[MissWaverly]

8. They voted for the son of a president

they thought that even if the son was inexperienced that he would defer to his dad when he was in over his head. The only one the country can trust to lead the country is the one they elect. This is not a homework assignment that mom and dad can help on.

[SusanaMontana41]

11. Sounds good to me

I doubt those who voted for him visit us here much.

[mzmolly]

9. Recommended. Proud to have worked for Mondale in my first Presidential campaign,

and for his latest Senate campaign as well.

:hi:

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Good work! nt

[mzmolly]

13. Thanks, I feel like a jinx

considering... but I'm sure we're FINALLY on our way out of this hell hole that Cheney has created with his Puppet pResident.

[DeepModem Mom]

14. For quite a long time, I voted for few winners.

And I agree -- that's changing, thank goodness.

[mzmolly]

12. "limit the policy options sent to the president..."

"he has been increasingly able to determine the answers to questions put to the president -- because he has been able to determine the questions"

He's acting as a gate keeper.

"it's almost as if he denies the legitimacy of an equal branch of government"

"indifference toward being held accountable by the people who elected him"

...

"The real question is why the president allows this to happen."

VERY interesting read, thanks again DMM.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. "Gatekeeper"--beginning with his "search" for a Vice Presidential candidate.

ANY other Presidential candidate would have told him that he couldn't possibly accept such a recommendation.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. A p.m. kick, with appreciation to Walter Mondale.