In a victory for the US Constitution and the rule of law, Dick Cheney has been ordered to preserve any records his office has kept. It was widely expected that Cheney would destroy all or most of his records, rather than turning them over to the National Archives as outgoing presidential administrations do.
No stranger to bizarre interpretations of the Constitution, Cheney and his staff argued that the office of Vice President isn’t part of the Executive Branch because the sole constitutional duty for the vice president (apart from hanging around in case the president dies) is to preside over the US Senate. But, Cheney and his minions further argued, it’s not really part of the Legislative Branch either, so they don’t have oversight power. Put another way, the vice president is above and beyond the reach of law or government.
Not surprisingly, there were plenty of legal and constitutional experts who didn’t share Cheney’s rather creative interpretations. Now, there’s a ruling to back up their side and to strike down Cheney’s.
This will likely go to the US Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Roberts was installed specifically because he helped Cheney keep his work secret by ruling against open government with respect to Cheney’s secret meetings with energy industry executives and lobbyists while Cheney was forming the “Bush” Administration’s energy policy. Alito, also appointed by Bush, and the far right Scalia and lightweight Thomas will all certainly side with the Bush-Cheney regime, meaning the outcome isn’t certain.
This all matters because if Cheney gets his way, American citizens will never know what Cheney did in their name. Even if it turns out he didn’t commit any crimes, he definitely did things that ordinary citizens would never have approved of, and they have the right to know that. Ultimately it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide if Cheney wins, or the American people, whether the Constitution triumphs or the special interests. This ruling is only the first step, but this time the people won.
3 comments:
His argument doesn't even make sense! If he's not a part of any of the three parts of government....??? Frightening that the Supreme Court may make a judgement that isn't supported by the constitution.
By this argument the VP is the most powerful position in the country; oversight of the Senate and of the Great Decider.
Recent information has said that Cheney has a policy of voice only passing of information in sensitive situations and I'm sure that his files have already been gone over and purged of any incriminateing stuff.
Did anyone see any headlines mentioning that Cheney spent more time with the heads of BP and Chevron while in Georgia than with the Georgian government. Guess it wasn't news worthy.
He would make Machiavelli blush.
D: Cheney's whole argument has amounted to a claim that he's above the law and Constitution, a looney notion he's also pursued, separately, in claiming dictatorial powers for the presidency, something I wrote about, in part, a few days ago.
The whole reason that Roberts and Alito were installed on the Supreme Court was so that they could support these dead wrong notions, and they will deliver as expected. They only need one of the other five to back them and they'll win. If they win the November elections, their view will be law for a generation, since they'll get to install one or two more justices who can be counted on to support their view.
And then Cheney will have achieved his ultimate goal: Burying the US Constitution. BUT if five judges rule against him, things change. If McSame loses the election, the Constitution may yet be restored. The stakes really are that high.
Frank: Cheney's argument is absurd, isn't it? I'm amazed sometimes that he thinks Americans are too stupid to see that, but he has nothing but contempt for ordinary Americans.
I agree with you, and I actually doubt that there's much of any significance left. Cheney's staff have no doubt destroyed or altered records to cover-up things, and done so in a way that it can't be traced back to Cheney himself, just as with the leaking of Valerie Plame's CIA identity or any number of other crimes or near-crimes committed by Cheney. So, no matter what happens, we'll never know what exactly, he did.
I did indeed see that Cheney went to Georgia, apparently specifically to meet with oil executives while the American news media was busy covering the US political conventions. Secret meetings with industry executives on foreign soil with no journalists watching, sounds like standard operating procedure for Cheney.
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