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June 23, 2007
What Department is President Bush In?
Well, the Vice President claimed that he was exempt from certain provisions of the amended executive order on Security Oversight because he is not technically a member of the executive branch of government!
Cheney's office drew criticism Thursday for claiming that it was exempt from the reporting requirements because the vice president's office is not fully within the executive branch. It cited his legislative role as president of the Senate when needed to break a tie [Los Angeles Times].
But before the laughter died down, the President came to the Vice President's rescue.
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn't specifically say so, Bush's order was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said [Los Angeles Times].
However, the White House spokesperson didn't say what branch of government the President's office belonged to. He simple said it didn't apply "apply to the vice president's office or the president's office."
So to whom does it apply? The Los Angeles Times reports, Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' government secrecy project, as saying,
. . . the order defines "agency" as any executive agency, military department and "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information"
That sure sounds like the vice president's office or the president's office would be included unless, of course, they are not entities "within the executive branch."
Even before the President came to the Vice President's rescue, Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars nailed part of issue.
Here's another thing I think this situation demonstrates: how weak Bush is compared to Cheney in terms of who's really in control of White House policy.
Yeap!
The other part of this issue is that the Vice President's office has something to hide. Why else would it have totally complied with the executive order in 2001 and 2002? Or is it that the Vice President changed governmental branches in 2003 and the President in 2007.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 23, 2007 8:13 AM | Read more on Current Events |
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