The separation between the Bush administration and reality has just gained new breadth. You know it’s time for a big change in Washington when the Vice President of the United States declares in all sincerity that his office:
does not consider itself an ‘entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information.’
Dick Cheney makes this assertion in order to claim that he doesn’t have to detail or justify his handling of classified information, even though federal law specifically requires him, as part of the “executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information,” to do so.
Clearly, the Office of the Vice President of the United States comes into the possession of classified information. After all, Dick Cheney personally authorized his Chief of Staff in the Vice President’s Office to release classified information to gain political advantage. You can’t release classified information if you don’t have it. If that isn’t enough for you, there’s the White House’s own description of Dick Cheney’s relationship to classified information. Look at this snippet from the White House itself:
Clearly Vice President Dick Cheney “comes into the possession of classified information.” That means the part of the clause to which Dick Cheney’s denial pertains must be the bit about the Office of the Vice President being an “entity within the executive branch.”
Either Dick Cheney’s gourd is completely scraped out, or he has seceded from the Union! To what body does the Office of the Vice President now belong — the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists?
(Sources: Letter from Rep. Henry Waxman to Vice President Dick Cheney, June 21 2007; National Journal February 9 2006; White House News Release May 9 2007)
Isn’t he just the cleverest guy! Yeah, just declare yourself immune to everything legal and that’s that. Boy i can’t wait to try that out on the IRS or the next time i get a traffic ticket. It’ll be called the Dick Cheney Defense!
On a more serious note, Congress hasn’t (and probably won’t) challenge him on any of this (he still owes them an explanation of the meeting of the energy chiefs way back in 2001). Why is that? So he really will probably “get away with” seceding from the reach of the law, just because he says so, just like Bush can use “signing statements” to do whatever he wants. Some democracy we had here.