Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) took a filleting knife to Vice President Dick Cheney’s attempts to elide the Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office on the House floor just now. Following through on his promise to defund the veep’s office if it doesn’t comply with an executive order mandating the ISOO inspect how each executive “entity” handles classified information, the House Democratic Caucus Chairman introduced an amendment to slice funding for the vice
president’s office from the executive branch’s budget. Watch:
Some choice excerpts:
Yesterday the vice president was forced to admit what even an eighth-grade student knew: there is no Cheney branch of government. While the vice president’s excuses may change, his desire to ignore the rule remains just as strong as ever. The vice president is unwilling to risk that the documents detailing the flawed intelligence or faulty assumptions that led us into the war in Iraq [sic]. He has been held unaccountable for six years, and now he wants to be held unaccountable in the historical record as well…If his office is not in the executive branch, then there is no executive branch office to fund. And perhaps more importantly, it underscores that the vice president is not above the law, and cannot ignore the rules. The law should follow him, whatever branch of government he chooses to hang his hat in.
Update: From Raw Story:
With limited members in the chamber, Rep. Emanuel’s amendment appeared to be defeated by a voice vote. However, the bill is set to receive a recorded vote later in the day. A Democratic leadership staff member told RAW STORY that a party-line vote in favor of the amendment was expected.