-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 5, 2007 1:03:04 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: George Bush, Sock Puppet?
Talking Points Memo
by Joshua Micah Marshall
(February 04, 2007 -- 09:01 AM EDT)
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/012263.php
In a piece headlined "Vice President's Shadow Hangs Over Trial,"
the WaPo has a nice synopsis of Cheney's involvement in the Plame
matter.
Actually, you could headline just about every story that way these
days: "Vice President's Shadow Hangs Over _________." Fill in the
blank: Iraq. Iran. Global warming. Renditions. Domestic surveillance.
I will confess to having been extremely skeptical in the early
years of the Bush Presidency that Cheney was really running the
show. It seemed too facile an explanation for what I was convinced
was a far more complicated situation.
Until the 9/11 Commission report came out.
Even the watered-down version of events in the Commission's report
made it absolutely clear that Cheney, ensconced in the White House
bunker on the morning of the attacks, had issued shootdown orders
outside of the chain of command and then conspired with the
President to conceal this fact from the Commission.
Since then, I've gone from being open to the idea of an Imperial
Vice Presidency to being convinced that historians will debate
whether something like a Cheney-led coup d'etat occurred, in which
some of the powers of the Executive were extra-constitutionally
usurped by the Office of the Vice President.
Last week, in trying to break the lock on who actually works in the
OVP --which the Vice President refuses to reveal-- the guys at
Muckraker stumbled across this entry from a government directory
known as the "Plum Book":
"The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of
the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is
attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency
performs functions in both the legislative branch (see article I,
section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see
article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and
section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code)."
It appears that Cheney's office submitted this entry in lieu of a
list of its employees, as federal agencies must do. It sounds like
something Cheney's current chief of staff, David Addington, might
have written. Cheney and Addington have been the among the most
powerful proponents of the theory of a "unitary executive," but
there are indications that they have also advanced, though less
publicly, a theory of a constitutionally distinct and independent
vice presidency.
For a long time, talk of Cheney's unprecedented power carried with
it a whiff of left-wing radicalism and Oliver Stone conspiracies.
But in the last year, several serious journalistic efforts have
explored the Cheney vice presidency. Robert Kuttner surveyed the
field in his essay, "See Dick Run (the Country)," for The American
Prospect. While it is axiomatic that Cheney is the power behind
throne, what remains missing, as Kuttner pointed out, is the sort
of relentless, day-to-day media coverage of Cheney that befits his
claims to constitutional power:
"If Cheney were the actual president, not just the de facto one, he
simply could not govern with the same set of policies and approval
ratings of 20 percent. The media focuses relentless attention on
the president, on the premise that he is actually the chief
executive. But for all intents and purposes, Cheney is chief, and
Bush is more in the ceremonial role of the queen of England.
"Yet the press buys the pretense of Bush being "the decider," and
relentlessly covers Bush -- meeting with world leaders, cutting
brush, holding press conferences, while Cheney works in secret,
largely undisturbed. So let's take half the members of the
overblown White House press corps, which has almost nothing to do
anyway, and send them over to Cheney Boot Camp for Reporters. They
might learn how to be journalists again, and we might learn who is
running the government.
The other thing missing has been congressional oversight. Since
Kuttner penned his essay, Democrats have gained control of
Congress. A hearing on the constitutional role of the vice
president might be an excellent place to start. From all
indications, Cheney has amassed considerable power due to his
experience and savvy vis-a-vis the President's relative lack
thereof. But that is a separate issue from the constitutional role
of the OVP, and whether, or in what ways, various statutory
regimens, particularly in the national security arena, apply to the
OVP.
By custom and tradition, the Vice President's role had been
circumscribed by how little express power and authority the
Constitution granted the position. Hence, all the jokes over the
years about the vice presidency. But in a move that is decidedly
anti-conservative, in the conventional sense, Cheney moved to fill
the void. I fear that what we will eventually find are structural
flaws that were deliberately exploited by the OVP, which in turn
further undermined constitutional and statutory structures.
Still, I can't help but be fascinated by the more pedestrian issue
of how Cheney continues to assert himself so vigorously without
running up against the ego of a cocksure President.
How is it that Bush, who is so caught up in macho public
demonstrations of his own personal strength and courage, can
tolerate a shadow presidency within his own White House?
What kind of spell has Cheney cast that allows Bush to continue to
believe he is the decider?
You can imagine all sorts of dysfunctional psychological dramas
playing out behind the scenes.
But whether it's the legal or political aspect of Cheney's role, it
all comes down to the same thing: we just don't know. It's about
time we find out.
-- David Kurtz
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