Cheney

Well, I've got to mention the latest on Dick Cheney's new grab for power. He seems to be asserting authority outside of any branch of government now. Check out The Reality Based Community for some good commentary. Also, this at Daily Kos.

The Kos article is particularly valuable as Progressive American Patriot hits on the obvious problem with Cheney's claim. Cheney claims to be part of both the executive and legislative branches, therefore rules applying to the executive branch don't apply to him. That makes no sense. Even if we accept his two branch position, then that would simply imply that the rules of both branches apply, not that neither rules apply. If I own land that stretches across the boarder between Maryland and Pennsylvania, I would then be subject to the laws of both states, not subject to the laws of no state. The fact that such obvious absurdity is taken seriously by anyone is disturbing.

The article over on TRBC is good satire, although I find the argument that the Vice President's office is not executive neither right on the merits nor particularly amusing, but maybe I'm missing some subtle humor. He does make good points on the relationship between Dick Cheney's "fourth branch of government" and Bush's claim to a unitary executive (totally contradictory) and between Cheney's fourth branch and strict constructionalism (totally contradictory). Furthermore, the idea of simply defunding the Vice-Presidency is a very good idea.