What is Palin’s Position on Vice-Presidential Exemptions?
About one year ago, Rep. Henry Waxman noticed—not that it was hard to notice—that Vice President Cheney believed that his office is in a unique Constitutional position. That it is exempt from various government requirements that apply to every other branch of government.
Cheney’s claimed exemption, then, was on the requirement for executive agencies to report each year to the National Archives on the volume of documents that they classify or declassify.
At the time, Waxman wrote 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.
Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, has said: “[Cheney’s position] undermines oversight of the classification system and reveals a disdain for presidential authority”…”It’s part of a larger picture of disrespect that this vice president has shown for the norms of oversight and accountability.”
Well, Cheney’s disrespect for the norms of oversight and accountability and for other government requirements apparently continues.
In a Sunday LA Times article, “Suit seeks to save Cheney files,” Christopher Lee of the Washington Post describes how:
Historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Dick Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the last 7 1/2 years.
Although, according to Lee, “Cheney has not disclosed his plans for his papers, nor has he argued publicly that any are exempt from the 1978 law,” Stanley I. Kutler, an emeritus professor and constitutional scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and others, including the American Historical Assn. and the Society of American Archivists, “are not reassured,” and were planning to file a lawsuit to protect the people’s records from just one more of Cheney’s infamous pre-emptive attacks. Good for them!
Fortunately, we only have five more months of this Imperial Presidency and Stealthy Vice Presidency. But perhaps, someone should ask the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate how she feels about these issues…if we can ever get her to grant an interview to the common press.
Read full story here.
Footnote: By the way, has anyone seen our secretive VP lately? I wonder why he wasn’t at the Republican Convention. Someone told me he was in Georgia to announce a $1 billion package to help fix that state’s schools, hospitals, bridges, highways and other infrastructure. About time that we do something for our own country. Oops, sorry: Someone just told me I had the wrong Georgia. Oh well, our Georgia will have to wait until the next administration—if it is the right one.
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13 Responses to “What is Palin’s Position on Vice-Presidential Exemptions?”
excellent questions DDW
We did see Cheney last week via televised portion of his trip; he looks gaunt, as though they've changed his medications.
I think Cheney going to Georgia could have been an excuse to keep him away from the convention (cynical I know). I mean, even the president had only a few minutes to spare.
I think the questions you raise here Dorian our great questions. But rather than just asking Palin to answer them, why don't they get asked at the VP debate? I would like to see what Biden has to say about them as well.
As a Georgian from our Georgia, I can say that we could definitely use that sort of money for our infrastructure. If we could convince the Republicans that that sort of money should be spent on infrastructure, and not on tax cuts.
This is what is so hard to understand. They'll invest billions in weapon systems that are never used or don't work, pay no bid contractors for abysmal results (our new embassy in Baghdad or the Iraqi police station come to mind), lose billions more ( the 8 billion lost by Bremer in the early days of the occupation) or give billions to foreign governments without even a whimper.
But ask Republicans to invest in their own country or countrymen, and its automatically viewed as socialism or a waste of taxpayer dollars.
All good comments and questions. We'll see if this subject comes up in the VP debates. The answers–if honest– should give us some insight into whether McCain-Palin really want to distance themselves from the Bush-Cheney culture of corruption.
J. Chem — Gustav was Bush's excuse not to attend, as I pointed out already. [wink]
As to the thread title:
1. You should be concentrating on Cheney, the real person at issue here;
2. You should be asking of Biden everything you suggest asking of Palin. Let the media continue to be similarly “asymmetric” (with all that implies with terrorists and “asymmetric warfare” given the nature of the Left including many of the more “vigorous” in the mainstream media) and you'll be surprised at the backlash that's so well earned, even if in fact still subtle and tame compared to what is truly deserved.
DLS,
Yes, I know Gustav kept the president away, but he still did his few minutes via satellite. Couldn't they have done the same thing for Cheney? My guess is it didn't really matter what was coming up the coast. Plain and simply put, I think McCain just flat out said he didn't want them there (esp. Cheney). Just a guess…
DLS- I have no problem treating Biden exactly the same as Palin. But compared to the governor, or to Darth Cheney, Senator Joe's life is an open book. If anything he's been too transparent about what he thinks or what he's up to— and its certainly a far stretch to imagine him as a stealth VP.
Meanwhile, we have Palin, who is enveloped in the cone of silence and emerges only to make a speech at a fundraiser or give an interview with a carefully selected media outlet.
Since McCain's mantra is “Country First”, maybe someone needs to ask him what he plans to do about our crumbling infrastructure, and disappearing middle class.
So what exactly did the msm focus on?
Issues? Hurricane Gustav?
Nope, it was a total debutante ball.
http://journalism.org/node/12693
:facepalm:headdesk:
and after the fanfare is over, the issues will still be there.
I blame reality tv and tabloid journalism. It's junk culture that's become main cultural diet…
maybe the lower 48 will acquire a taste for moose, maybe not.
Gee,
Odd story for a site called The “Moderate” Voice. Henry Waxman is about a partisan as it gets. Oh, and reading through, what the heck does it have to do with Sarah Palin? Contributor needs a course in Journalism 101 me thinks.
Cheers,
Mike
PPA_Founder:
“Contributor” perhaps thinks that asking the Vice Presidential candidate what she thinks about the present Vice President's total disdain for the Constitution might be relevant. How silly of me!
Did the PFA_Founder see the moose-caugh-in-the -headlights, petrified stare of Sarah Palin tonight when asked about the “Bush Doctrine?” Oh well, that perhaps also had nothing to do with Sarah Palin. No that is not Journalism 101. It is getting-ready-to-vote 101
PPA_Founder:
Gee, perhaps the “Contributor” thought that asking the Republican vice-presidential candidate how she feels about the present Republican Vice-President's shredding the Constitution (and the peoples' records), was a legitimate question. How silly of me!
After watching the moose-caught-in-the-headlights stare of Sarah Palin when asked tonight about the “Bush Doctrine,” I guess PPA_Founder still thinks “what the heck does it have to do with Sarah Palin? “
No, PPA_Founder, asking those questions is not Journalism 101, it is democracy 101.