Cheney lawyer claims Congress has no authority over vice-president

[deminks]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/dickcheney.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job.

The exception claimed by Cheney's counsel came in response to requests from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president's chief of staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is "not within the committee's power of inquiry".

"Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president's official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president communicate," Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill.

The exception claimed by Cheney's office recalls his attempt last year to evade rules for classified documents by deeming the vice-president's office a hybrid branch of government - both executive and legislative.

[BlueJac]

1. And I was born yesterday.....that fucking clown is a traitor!

[aquart]

4. I may have been born yesterday...but I've been in town all morning.

And I know a lying treasonous bastard who shoots a gun when he's been drinking when I see one.

[notadmblnd]

2. I thought the VP's duties only involved tie breaking in the Senate and laying in wait in case

something were to happen to the pretzledent? So, using their twisted logic, unless he's doing nothing, everything he does is answerable to congress.

[Adsos Letter]

3. CLAIM AND BE DAMNED!!!

off to the galleys with you, traitor...

[aquart]

6. Off to Guantanamo.

Where I am sure he will be greeted with open arms.

[sakabatou]

5. O RLY?

It has authority over the executive branch. FAIL.

[angrycarpenter]

7. In other words....

[Echo In Light]

32. In other words: totalitarianism

[spindrifter]

8. This has been his point for years--

this is ego of the most enormous type--some would dare say grandiosity...

[MadMaddie]

9. So is it Treason yet...what the fuck else will it take to

prosecute the bastards. By making that statement he is not worthy of the VP seat.

[lordsummerisle]

10. Another affront to the checks and balances

of representative government. I used to see story-lines like these and be shocked...but after 7 years of this it's just another day in the Imperial Presidency, with the VP basically saying "whatcha gonna do about it?" to anything hinting at investigations...

[madmom]

11. In other words fuck you all He's above the law!

edited to add.. the capital h in he's was an accident, but maybe it was Freudian. :shrug:

[lovuian]

12. He is KING and nobody knew it cause they didn't get the memo

Good luck Cathy on that defense

I remember Spiro Agnew who wasn't immuned

[donheld]

21. Makes one wonder if Cheney realizes

he's not immune to the fact his term ends 01/20/09?

[Ezlivin]

23. No it doesn't...he's the new VP under McCain

That way he can have an unbroken chain of custody over the empire.

[lovuian]

29. Yep he didn't get that Memo

Dang according to him the Vice President is higher than the President

[orleans]

13. didn't they try to pull this crap a couple years ago?

"i'm not part of the executive branch" or some such shit.

and didn't we say: fine then, give us back the fucking house we're letting you live in.

(something to that effect)

[L. Coyote]

14. "I may be from a small town, but I think I know a Big Lie when I hear one."

Senator Byron Dorgan uttered this entertaining line during hearings on Abramoff.

[Solly Mack]

15. Well, if it works - then he's right.

If David Addington doesn't testify, and if they both leave office without once answering for their actions, then Cheney's right -"Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job."

[Bandit]

19. They don't lack the authority just the will to exercise that authority.

They are cowards through and through..

[Solly Mack]

30. It's not as if they aren't wearing "kick me" signs. I agree

[TahitiNut]

16. ... and Congress will roll over for the Corporate Caesar.

:puke:

[KharmaTrain]

17. He's Banking On The Supreme Court...

...and thanks to yesterday's rulings...kids, I'm sorry to say he may just get away with it. If this court could rule 6-3 to disenfranchise thousands of voters, ya think they'll do the right thing when it comes to ruling against this regime? As Scalia said "get over it"...they know they've got Kennedy in their back pocket on votes to protect this regime and Repugnicans. Consider the Supreme Court null and void for the next 20 years.

[Canuckistanian]

18. Wow. Using legal gymnastics to avoid responsibilty

Funny, he has "magical" powers over both legislative and executive branches, yet NO accountability?

Gee, I can see where a despot wanting to take over America merely has to angle for the Veep position.

[Karenina]

20. IMPEACH, INDICT, IMPRISON.

Simple.

[Jennicut]

22. What comment can I possibly come up with that has not been said. A few more months....

Just a few more and he will be gone. I doubt he will show as much class as our former VP.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Will he be "gone"?

:scared:

[DFW]

If it were up to Cheney and his lawyer....

The only people authorized to examine Cheney's behavior are Cheney and Ronald Reagan,
and one of them is already deceased.

[Jack Rabbit]

35. One is deceased and the other . . .

. . . is undead.

[DFW]

37. Now that you mention it, his teeth could indeed be the work of a 15th century Transylvanian dentist.

[Vickers]

25. "the Congress lacks any authority" Oh, they have the authority...

...they just don't have the courage.

[bdamomma]

27. if only the Congress would use that power and say no one

is above the law, and use some ACTION against him.

[mnhtnbb]

34. or in other words, they lack cojones.

[bdamomma]

26. the way that this disgusting regime is re writing history

we should just blow off that cheney cannot be touched with committing illegal crimes. Cheney has quite the disdain for the Congress, he is a traitor, and a domestic enemy.

[spanone]

28. so, if i get this straight, our 'government' has absolutely NO oversight? they report to no one?

i don't think so

[Amonester]

31. Darth Cheneyousself to Congress:

"So?"

The war criminals R gonna start WWIII before November, and claim only "military-experienced" mc$same is "qualified" to be C-in-C in a time of total war...

Otherwise, he's got no chance at all (even using fraudulent code...) and the cheney/bu$h junta knows it.

Why can't the Dems read the PNAC BS and denounce these war criminals??

Why don't they take the side of THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to stop them??

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

[Winterblues]

33. Sounds like Cheney already has all his funding in place so he can tell Congress

to "Get Fucked"...."Big Time" What can they do? He will be gone before any court will hear the case and when they do you can bet the Democratic VP will not be allowed any such thought process..

[warren pease]

36. If Conyers, Pelosi were worth a tenth of what we pay them and actually stood for something ...

... they'd just declare Cheney a non-person, kick him out of the Senate and simply refuse to acknowledge his existence or his role as a government official.

They'd stop paying his salary and those of his staff. Stop paying his and his staff's medical bills. Kick him out of his taxpayer-funded home for non-payment of rent. Stop paying for his offices, his office equipment, including shredders, his undisclosed locations, his cars and any other means of transportation, his meals and everything else the vice-presidential budget pays for.

Revoke his Air Force 2 privileges. Remove his Secret Service protection, and redeploy any SS personnel currently assigned to protecting his family members.

Best of all, they would make all this retroactive to January 2001. Since he claims he's not part of the executive branch, let's take him at his word and agree that he has no status as a government official.

He hasn't been fired, resigned or been voted out of office, so whatever he was after the 2000 right wing coup is what he is today.

In other words, you can't just get elected (sic), assume the office, run enormous projects employing thousands of people, spend billions of taxpayer dollars then opt out of the executive branch unilaterally.

The fact that he's now defining his job as an entity outside the executive means, logically, that he hasn't had any claim to the VP's part of the federal budget the entire time the Bushies have been in office.

To get to the bottom of this whole mess, our democratic leaders could start by ordering the GAO to analyze Cheney's budget with a fine-toothed comb, line by tedious line.

Then have them total up his official expenditures during the time he's been pretending to be a member of the federal government, starting on inauguration day 2001, and present him with a bill that demands immediate repayment of every single penny of taxpayer money he's spent since he assumed office.

And maybe the next time some asshole like Addington claims that "...Congress lacks any authority to examine his (Cheney's) behaviour on the job," somebody else among the democratic MAJORITY will be heard laughing themselves silly, flipping off Addington or his clone du jour, and ordering the US Marshals -- armed with an Inherent Contempt citation -- to arrest Cheney and his crew of felonious apologists.

Or when some other asshole like Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger maintains that Cheney's conduct is "...not within the committee's power of inquiry," out go the US Marshals again, returning a couple of hours later with Cheney and his entire supporting cast of lawless evil bastards.

Isn't this a decent plan with the proper amount of snark and disrespect thrown in for good measure? Pelosi and Reid aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, but I assume they've got at least one or two smart advisers on staff who can still think their way out of a paper bag. Do they really think that Cheney's latest batshit crazy definition of his place in government, or lack of one, has any merit?

Or are they, in fact, even more awful and incompetent and complicit than I've always assumed and will do nothing to curb the Bushies -- even when Cheney himself presents them with the golden opportunity to make him an international joke and an excuse to try and grab some of his war-profiteering money as well?


wp

[spanone]

38. what's so fucking sad, is that congress must think it has no authority over dick

either that or they've signed a pact