Vice-President Dick Cheney has obviously spent too much time in “undisclosed” locations because since 2003 he has directed his office to quit complying with Executive Order 12958 that requires the National Archives to inspect federal agencies and White House offices to ensure that they are complying with the security procedures regarding classified information.
In a letter to the national Archives, sent in 2006 by Cheney’s staff, Cheney asserted that the Office of the Vice-President is not an “entity within the executive branch” and therefore not subject to presidential executive orders.
Since when was the OVP not part of the executive branch? Has Dick Cheney ever even read the Constitution of the United States? You know, the one he took an oath to uphold and protect?
The disclosure that Cheney views himself and his office as a separate apparatus unaffected by any restraint comes from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Congressman Henry Waxman. The issue itself was brought to Waxman’s committee by National Archive personnel after the Department of Justice (under Alberto Gonzales) refused to look into the matter. In other words, this bold and stunning assertion was discovered not as the result of some “witchhunt” for wrongdoing.
The prospect that Cheney clearly views himself and his office (and has apparently since 2003) to be an ‘independent operator’ inside the American government, subject to no laws or rules from anyone or anything, including the president, is chilling indeed.
If this isn’t enough to remove this man from office then American government and democracy is nothing but a farce and a shell of its former self.
(cross posted at Bring It On!
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Politics.
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June 21st, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Cheney’s view is merely an extension of what this administration has been saying all along: “We are above the law.”
June 21st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Actually I always thought that Cheney was really the President and Bush2 was his puppet as he was to his father Bush1!
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I recently posted on this same subject, because Cheneys continued disregard for the laws of this land is abhorent, appalling and as you said quite scary!
June 24th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Well, at least we know now that there are four branches of government: the legislative, the executive, the judicial, and the Chenetive (Cheneary? Halliburtive)