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Cheney, The Black Hole
The vice president's office -- where information goes, never to return.
From today's Washington Post profile of Cheney (one part of four):
Stealth is among Cheney's most effective tools. Man-size Mosler safes, used elsewhere in government for classified secrets, store the workaday business of the office of the vice president. Even talking points for reporters are sometimes stamped "Treated As: Top Secret/SCI." Experts in and out of government said Cheney's office appears to have invented that designation, which alludes to "sensitive compartmented information," the most closely guarded category of government secrets. By adding the words "treated as," they said, Cheney seeks to protect unclassified work as though its disclosure would cause "exceptionally grave damage to national security."Across the board, the vice president's office goes to unusual lengths to avoid transparency. Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs. His general counsel has asserted that "the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing either. Cheney is refusing to observe an executive order on the handling of national security secrets, and he proposed to abolish a federal office that insisted on auditing his compliance.
In the usual business of interagency consultation, proposals and information flow into the vice president's office from around the government, but high-ranking White House officials said in interviews that almost nothing flows out. Close aides to Cheney describe a similar one-way valve inside the office, with information flowing up to the vice president but little or no reaction flowing down.
Comments (28)
Jack wrote on June 24, 2007 11:23 AM:Cheney epitomizes the entire Bush Administration's disdain for openness and democratic ideals. He represents the hidden hand of multinational corporate interests that tell our government what to do, despite the best interests of the people. Absolutele secrecy is necessary for them to advance their agendas without attracting any unwanted attention that might hinder them. Scooter Libby's successful prosecution is an example of what happens when "too much information" is leaked outside the Bush cabal. God only knows what other laws they've broken and continue to break. Until Congress gets the moral fortitude to reenact the Independent Counsel statute, abuses of power will no doubt continue to occur.
RB-Chicago wrote on June 24, 2007 11:47 AM:This regime is for all intents and purposes a disctatorship - period.
AND, it's the reason these loosers should be IN PRISON - NOW!
c92 wrote on June 24, 2007 11:52 AM:Clearly, Cheney is loathe to admit anything. And not to suggest that anything he has done thus far has been legal or logical, but let's really consider his FITNESS for the job.
As Vice President, the Constitution would say that he would step in should the President become incapacitated.
So my questions are twofold:
1/Does VP Cheney plan to live up to this role should be be called upon or does he have some sort of alternate definition?
2/Is VP Cheney really qualified to be Vice President? Is he being straight about the true realities of his health and his heart disease? Is this disease affecting his mind?
Given the track record of this individual, can we really trust ANYTHING he would have the American people believe?
snarfle wrote on June 24, 2007 12:05 PM:God, where is SPIRO AGNEW when we truly need him!
Rebel wrote on June 24, 2007 12:45 PM:Agnew is sitting in hell waiting for Cheney. They are liars of a feather.
poggy wrote on June 24, 2007 1:01 PM:I really think that if Cheney called off the next election due to "national security concerns", those f**king wimps in congress would still do nothing about it. Sure, they'd whine and complain, but they still would want to do anything extreme, like impeachment or something. No no no...
poggy wrote on June 24, 2007 1:02 PM:I really think that if Cheney called off the next election due to "national security concerns", those f**king wimps in congress would still do nothing about it. Sure, they'd whine and complain, but they still wouldn't want to do anything extreme, like impeachment or something. No no no...
mbbsdphil wrote on June 24, 2007 1:02 PM:The press ignored JFK's womanizing, as it had FDR's wheel chair. Until now, it ignored that Bush is the Errand Boy President.
What hold does Dick Cheney have over this weak, uncurious and petulant ne'er do well scion of a hundred fifty years of Wall Street wealth and power? What secrets does he threaten to expose, what emotional holes does he fill that he can command so much and expose so little?
There's an even more important question. Mr. Cheney, not this weakling president, has remade the White House and the federal government into his authoritarian, disdainful, and yet fearful image. Shorn of the fleece of secrecy, what does he really look like?
Jane wrote on June 24, 2007 3:30 PM:During the State of the Union, was that really a Blackberry or did Cheny open a pill bottle and then a couple of minutes later raise his hand to his mouth and take a pill?
Buck wrote on June 24, 2007 3:47 PM:Come on guys. It's a positive sign. We've known this a while. When the Washington Post of all papers puts up stories like this you can bet the end is near.
mbbsdphil wrote on June 24, 2007 4:02 PM:SC: sudden as in departure
The WaPo article is an important contribution to the process of exposing the work of the Vice President. It is a belated response to Robert Kuttner's charge, in the Boston Globe last year, that the MSM had been grossly negligent in ignoring the role of the VP. But the WaPo piece has troubling elements of being a pre-emptive strike against more damning revelations by others.
The WaPo, for example, pours cold water on the notion that Cheney is a shadow president, and it speaks of Mr. Cheney's "impish sense of humor and unusual kindness to his subordinates". Adolf Hitler showed unusual kindness toward Eva Braun, but that's not relevant to an evaluation of his personality or administration, except as an anomaly. Likewise, Mr. Cheney's occasional acts of kindness are irrelevant to an analysis of how he wields power in Washington. Even monsters love their children.
The WaPo article is, by design, an unfinished piece. But it is already a mixed blessing. Most damningly, it fails to weight the inconsistencies of its principal subjects, Bush and Cheney.
It claims that George Bush remains the guy in charge and that Dick Cheney is doing his business. That claim seems to confuse the cart with the horse because they move in the same direction.
If abstracted as a case for business or political science graduates, few would describe the behavior of Mr. Bush/Mr. X as that of a CEO still in charge of his operation. Mr. Y envisions the policy, creates the policy, defends and enforces the policy, often in insubordinate defiance of his president and his public statements, and in defiance of his president's other chief subordinates who are fulfilling constitutional roles that the VP is not.
Has Mr. Y stolen the authority to do that, or had it delegated to him by the Deciderer? To reach the conclusion, as the WaPo does, that Bush remains in charge of an unwieldy but effective subordinate requires an evaluation of George Bush as a mastermind, a Prof. Moriarty. Few would characterize this unread, uncurious, randomly attentive man-child in those terms. Let's hope that the next installments are a little harder hitting.
Anonymous wrote on June 24, 2007 4:15 PM:Your system is still losing comments. "Fix that hole in your pocket."
C 92 wrote on June 24, 2007 5:11 PM:If Cheney's running his own classification system, does that also mean that he has the ability to grant people access to this system.
We know that he claims to be able to declassify info in the traditional sense, but how many people have access to Cheney-land's classification system?
foolme1ns wrote on June 24, 2007 6:13 PM:what if you threw a constitutional crisis and nobody cared.
The Oracle wrote on June 24, 2007 7:29 PM:Besides the safes being used as Dick's filing cabinets, I wonder how many shredders Dick "less" Cheney has? Or per reports about a document shredder company truck seen outside the VP's residence, what "loyal Cheney" document shredder company has he hired to shred all his documents for him?
Well, at least there will be no Dick Cheney vice-presidential library, because there'll be no documents left for it.
Of course, when Bush gets his library built, maybe a suitable tribute to Cheney can be found on the library grounds, like a Dick Cheney commemorative outhouse.
Nah. None of Cheney's "sensitive" documents will be left, so what will people use for toilet paper?
Dubious OVP Legal Counsel wrote on June 24, 2007 7:36 PM:OVP legal counsel's argument is circular: "His general counsel has asserted that "the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing either."
Cheney asserts he's not in either branch; thus, he cannot claim "executive" privilege to hide information:
[Click the link under "Dubious OVP legal counsel" below:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29170#comment-6692
Cheney's legal assertions on secrecy have broad implications, undermining many legal assertions across the spectrum since 2001. Dubious legal counsel arguments raise questionsa about OVP Legal competence, and the legality of asserting secrecy in re rendition, FISA, and other illegal activity.
Without a bonafide claim of "executive" priviledge, OVP legal arguments in re state secrets falls apart; and the validity of the affidavits by OVP-related personnel collapses. It appear by making this assertion, OVP legal counsel has raised reasonable questions about fraud upon the court in re state secrets and other OVP-related legal counsel's affidavits to the US District Court.
DC Bar and Congress: Response?
johnnydoughey wrote on June 24, 2007 8:15 PM:This is what occurs when the parties come up with candidates. They are not picked because they have any redeeming qualities . They are picked for one purpose only...popularity.
We will be doing it again this next cycle.
Who has a chance to beat the democrats?
Who has a chance to beat the republicans?
We continue to vote for the lesser of two evils. Not one of the current candidates (on either side) has shown me any patriotic or ethical qualities whatsoever.
On the democrat side alone we have folks who didn't even bother to read all the literature before sending other people's sons and daughters to war, someone who promised to give people who believed in him his full attention for the next four years... then found running for the president was more impportand than fulfilling his promises. One guy wants everyone else to care for the poor while building mansions and getting $400 haircuts.
I could continue, but you get the drift. Fact is... these folks have traded their integrity for an office. We are not gettiing people in Washington who represent anything more than their quest for power... on both sides. Of course we voted in a demighod. This time he was a republican and next time he might be a democrat. That's the nature of voting the lesser of two evils. As soon as he/she is in they instantly become the greater of two evils.
chuckles wrote on June 24, 2007 9:05 PM:Big Dick!
chuckles wrote on June 24, 2007 9:05 PM:Big Dick!....chuckle chuckle
Jim wrote on June 24, 2007 10:57 PM:From Monday's Part 2
No longer was the vice president focused on procedural rights, such as access to lawyers and courts. The subject now was more elemental: How much suffering could U.S. personnel inflict on an enemy to make him talk? Cheney's lawyer feared that future prosecutors, with motives "difficult to predict," might bring criminal charges against interrogators or Bush administration officials.
Is this the reason for the DOJ firing's??
Code word
Tricky
johnnydoughey wrote on June 25, 2007 12:05 AM:Is this the reason for the DOJ firing's??
I remember just before the attack on Iraq, the president managed , to get a waiver for all administration officials, as well as a host of others, exempting them from any and all future war crime prosecutions. I do not remember the entire story, but I imagine it was passed by congress.....
Yup wrote on June 25, 2007 12:39 AM:I'm sure others can cite the exact documents
Has the Post yet editorialized on Libby's sentence? Unlike other major dailies, they (inexplicably) hadn't when I last looked. If indeed they have not, this series must have played a major role in that decision. Those wusses...
steambomb wrote on June 25, 2007 12:44 AM:It is passed time for each and every congressman/woman to sign onto HR333. Impeach this blight on our nation.
Jim Leach wrote on June 25, 2007 1:07 AM:Holy smokes! What's it going to take for the new majority to stop simply investigating Cheney, Gonzales, etc. and actually take some steps to put a stop to this mess? Are they all sitting on their hands simply because the election is less than 18 months away and then all this goes away?
It probably doesn't all just go away. I think there needs to be some roll-back, but I'll bet the Dems aren't doing anything because they'd like THEIR President to have the same kind of unfettered power that this ridiculous administration has given itself.
What this country needs is a good revolution from the grass roots up.
yup wrote on June 25, 2007 2:23 AM:Democracy takes a long time. We all know DICK is a crook. Let's just get enough evidence to put him in jail. Preferably at one of them "Black sites".
MCD wrote on June 25, 2007 2:34 AM:Obviously, Bush isn't running the show... he doesn't have the brains, or for that matter, probably the will, to control Cheney.
They convinced Bush he could be a great pres, they puffed him all up, told him what to do, how to act... now he is up the creek without a paddle. and the funny part is... he probably hasn't even realized it yet. He is so insulated I doubt he even reads a single newspaper or watches a single news program. Cheney has probably banned anybody from talking straight with him. Clueless!
Yup wrote on June 25, 2007 2:48 AM:Having now read the Post article, I'd say it's less an indictment of the VP than it is a mortal challenge to the democratic party, i.e., as currently constituted.
"Which side are you on"?
My congressman, Dave Thompson (D-Ca) has made clear to me in personal correspondence that impeachment "is off the table". (He did, however, vote to "censure" Gonzalez, as if that vote meant a godddamn thing).
The very life of our Constitutional Republic is at stake, and Thompson has chosen to run like a coward. I say that, knowing full well that he is a decorated, Airborne, Vietnam Vet. He will never again have either my vote, or respect, until he changes his tune.
Yup wrote on June 25, 2007 2:54 AM:"Democracy takes a long time. We all know DICK is a crook. Let's just get enough evidence to put him in jail. Preferably at one of them "Black sites".
I've been posting as 'Yup' for a month or so. I'm not aware anyone else had ever used the moniker, but will assume someone else had. I guess it's time to change it (I do it all the time), as I did not post the above comment.