Dick Cheney - Unitary Vice President

I wasn't going to say anything about this, but with the establishment media finally noticing that Dick Cheney considers himself a government unto himself, I want to correct the record about who knew what and when.

There is a bit of triumphalism taking place over the fact the blogs picked up on Cheney's bizarre Unitary Theory of Vice-Presidential power a whole five months before it became front-page news.

Two bloggers whom I respect immensely, and in whose mighty company I barely consider myself blogger, have been writing about this. A couple of days ago, Digby wrote:

Talking Points Memo, a real live journalistic endeavor, broke the story of Cheney's bizarre theory that he is a fourth branch of government accountable to no one, not even the president back on February 4th. A bunch of blogs picked it up and pontificated about it. It seemed to me like a pretty big deal:

I had always known that Cheney was running the show, but I assumed he did it purely by using the power of the executive branch and manipulation of the presdient. I had no idea that he might have secretly carved out a previously unenumerated institution that derives its power from both the legislative and executive branches. What in the hell has really been going on in this administration?

And on Saturday, Josh Marshall wrote at TPM:

One of the angles that's gone largely unnoticed about all of this is that it's actually old news. Cheney started holding himself out as some kind of unaccountable, pseudo-fourth branch of government way back in February. The blogs noticed, and explained how crazy the argument is, but the media yawned. No one pushed the White House to explain, the Republican-led Congress barely lifted an eyebrow, and everyone just moved on, satisfied that Dick Cheney had established his own superbranch.

It's interesting -- and if anyone can explain the reasoning, I'm all ears -- but the same important story that was ignored in February is suddenly fascinating in June. The same questions that bloggers asked then are unexpectedly interesting to everyone else now.

With all due respect to Josh and Digby, Dick Cheney was acting all high-and-mighty long before February of 2007, and at least one blog took notice of it before then, as well.

In 2001, Cheney's office began exempting itself from reporting requirements regarding the vice president's travel on the grounds that the Office of the Vice President was "not an agency of the executive branch." The practice was noted by the Center for Public Integrity in November, 2005. At that time, I wrote:

The vice president's office is not an agency of the executive branch? Then, what is it? Does Cheney really fancy himself co-president as so many of his critics characterize him? This would explain a lot.

It would explain, for example, why Cheney assumed the authority to order military planes to shoot down civilian aircraft on September 11, 2001. It would explain why, this October, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan gave the impression that he did not have the authority to answer questions on behalf of the vice president.

Q Given the fact that the Vice President did say publicly in September of 2003 that he never knew about Joe Wilson or who sent him, as John points out, and now there appears to be information to contradict that, how do you explain that contradiction?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, there's an ongoing investigation. There are many facts that are not known. I would encourage you not to engage in speculation. And on top of that, if there's any additional information that the Vice President's Office wants to provide you, you can direct questions there. But the policy of this White House has been not to comment on this investigation while it's ongoing. And it has been that way for some time.

This curious remark by McClellan makes perfect sense if, as reported, Cheney has established that his office is not an agency of the executive branch of the United States government.

Of course, if it is not, one could be forgiven for wondering just what on earth it is.

Later that month, when the Washington Post picked up the story about Cheney's travel records, I wrote:

The bottom line is that, in his obsessive pursuit of secrecy, Cheney is forcing American taxpayers to pick up the tab for travel that should be paid for by non-federal government organizations.

Also of interest, and as we noted in our earlier post, is the contention that the V.P.s office is not an agency of the Executive Branch of the United States government. One wonders, then, how Cheney can claim executive privilege in refusing to answer questions about his Energy Task Force.

As you can see, the Unitary Theory of Vice-Presidential Power was already old news when Josh and the rest of the blogosphere finally took notice in February, 2007.

Now that the establishment media have finally noticed, it's really old news. It's still big news, though, and I'm glad they caught up.