by Mark Silva
Rep. Henry Waxman has caught on to something that the Tribune first reported in April of 2006: Vice President Dick Cheney exempts his office from a demand that executive agencies report each year on the volume of documents that they classify or declassify – something required by a presidential executive order his boss signed.
The vice president maintains he is exempt from this reporting requirement because of the uniqueness of his office – not really an executive office, he says, seeing as he also sits as president of the Senate. And each year, as the National Archives collects reports from dozens of executive offices, the vice president refuses to report in.
Waxman (D-Cal.), chairman of the Oversight Committee, isn’t happy about this: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions,’’ Waxman now has written to Cheney. “It would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."
"We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law,'' Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said today.
The National Archives have complained to the vice president’s office, Waxman notes, and also called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resolve this “impasse.’’ The vice president’s staff responded, Waxman says, by attempting to abolish the agency within Archives responsible for carrying out the executive order.
The Tribune first reported on Cheney’s refusal to take part in the annual accounting of classification and declassification in April 2006. Despite an executive order signed by President Bush in 2003 requiring all agencies or "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" to report on its activities, Cheney’s office maintains that it has no legal obligation to report on its classification decisions.
The vice president says his office is not an agency, and that the vice president is unique in having both an executive role and legislative role -- the VP is also president of the Senate.
Monitors of government secrecy say the vice president is flouting his own president's authority in this matter. "It undermines oversight of the classification system and reveals a disdain for presidential authority," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. "It's part of a larger picture of disrespect that this vice president has shown for the norms of oversight and accountability."
The spokeswoman for Cheney has explained the vice president's stance for the Tribune’s reports. “This has been thoroughly reviewed and it's been determined that the reporting requirement does not apply to [the office of the vice president], which has both legislative and executive functions," McBride has said.
Each year, the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives and Records Administration reports to the president on the extent of agency classification and declassification of documents – as the president has ordered the agency to do. And each year, it footnotes the refusal of the Office of the Vice President to report.
Since the beginning of Bush's presidency, agencies and other entities each year had reported to the Archives increasing numbers of decisions to classify information as top secret, secret or confidential. These numbers rose from 8.65 million classification decisions reported in 2001 to a record 15.65 million reached in 2004.
Among those reporting, that is.
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Comments
The 2nd in command of the branch of our government responsible for enforcing the law of the land exempts himself and his office from that law.
Posted by: Tom | June 21, 2007 11:40 AM
Chimpy McFlightsuit's puppeteer elevates himself above the law - trying to assert that he's not subject to the laws that apply to the Executive Branch - due to his status as President of the Senate. However, I would posit that he most assuredly would refuse to comply with any assertion by the Senate that he submit himself to the rules that apply to Senate members.
When will the MSM finally call a spade a spade and acknowledge once and for all that it is Cheney that has been the "real" president for the past 6 and 1/2 years?
Posted by: Buster | June 21, 2007 12:19 PM
Surprise! Give a fat, lying crook power and expect him not to abuse it? And no one in Justice Dept or Congress with the courage to hold him accountable.
Posted by: Rick/Sneads Ferry, NC | June 21, 2007 12:35 PM
Cheney died during the 2004 campaign. What you folks have been seeing since is a hologram.
Posted by: john | June 21, 2007 12:40 PM
Let's see, Vice Emperor Cheney says he shouldn't have to report his offices classification or declassification because his office is partially a legislative office. However the classifying and declassifying is strictly an Executive function, not a legislative one, therefore the executive order should apply.
Posted by: Tony | June 21, 2007 12:49 PM
The so-called liber Tribune Swamp has yet to post an article on Rudy G skipping out on Iraq Study Group meetings to make money or Newsweek's article on Fred Thomspsons private writings that show him opposed to early term abortion restrictions and opposed to a Consitutional Amendment protecting the sanctity of life. "I do believe that the decistion to have an abortion is a moral issue and should not be a legal one subject to the dictates of the government."
Posted by: jethro | June 21, 2007 1:01 PM
Go get em' "Bulldog" Waxman, bring the criminal Republicans to justice!
Posted by: John E | June 21, 2007 1:18 PM
This is just one of the impeachable offenses Cheney has committed over the years.
Posted by: Cheryl | June 21, 2007 2:36 PM
Cheney himself referred to it as ""operating on the dark side." Doesn't the VP have to protect and uphold the Constitution too?
And is that a blind trust or a winking eye trust?
What a sleezeball.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | June 21, 2007 2:49 PM
he is a traitor to the united states... an evil man... trial. conviction. hang him till dead...
Posted by: seth | June 21, 2007 2:56 PM
Jethro,
The Trib (print and online) did run an article written by its Newsday sister re Rudy's quitting (after being given an ultimatum to start showing up or leave the group) Baker's Iraq Study Group. I posted it in the Swamp when Bruce complained that the Swamp doesn't post GOP news.
If you have nothing good to say....
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | June 21, 2007 3:25 PM
Cheney's a crook. Plain & simple. A treasonous money grubbing disgrace. I add to that any and all who defend him. Neo-convicts!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | June 21, 2007 3:32 PM
How was the American Public stupid enough to even consider voting for these criminals?! Bring home the troops so that they can participate in the "PURGE"!!!!
Posted by: The Decider | June 21, 2007 4:22 PM
RATS!!! Where're the neocons when you want them? I'm SO interested in hearing how they'll defend this. Is he not part of the Executive Branch by virtue of his being President Pro-Tem of the Senate? What twisted logic will come to bear in this little conundrum?
Interesting thing to think about, though. If Cheney's NOT part of the Executive Branch, then he has no claim to Executive Privilege, and he'd best get EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER he's written or read since he became VP up for Congressional review PRONTO, without any of his pissy moaning. (Ooops! Sorry -- you got there first, Tony!)
Posted by: Op109 | June 21, 2007 4:41 PM
Wing nuts are slow to the keyboard on this one. Waiting for direction from Rush and Sean.
Posted by: Raving Loon | June 21, 2007 4:51 PM
The vice president maintains he is exempt from this reporting requirement because of the uniqueness of his office – not really an executive office, he says, seeing as he also sits as president of the Senate
Am I the only one who thinks this is bizarrely funny? The Bush/Cheney empire will hide behind the Patriot Act on all their illegal activities.
Posted by: Mrs. Jesus | June 21, 2007 7:47 PM
Hey Loon,
I think the local whacko wingnuts get their marching orders from RNC Bruce.
But between having ammo like Dubya and whackos like Johnny "Dear" D. on your team - let me try it another way - if politics had a slaughter rule, the ump would have called game on RNC Bruce's team a long time ago.
Posted by: Doug Zook | June 22, 2007 8:31 AM
For six years and till 06,Henry Waxman wrote letters to the President no one read he was so boring. Then, he heads his Oversight Committee and voila he is a tormentor supreme. Waxman hates Bush and Cheney period. He has terrorized the AG and others. As vice President, an elected office, Cheney is not bound by any executive orders. But, Waxman is an egomaniac that is part of the reason the Congress has such bad polling numbers. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | June 22, 2007 9:56 AM
Cheney is foul smelling, slimy, and smarmy. He is devoid of ethnics and morals. He is not exempt from anything. He is accountable to the American people. He is a treasonous criminal. He should be impeached, prosecuted, and sent to a labor camp.
Posted by: Doug R. | June 22, 2007 11:38 AM
Now it comes out that not only did Cheney refuse to have his staff comply with the Executive Order, he attempted to have the office that oversees compliance with the order shut down completely.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19360916/
Vindictive, isn't he?
Posted by: Tony | June 22, 2007 2:39 PM