June 21, 2007
Go Home Already: Time Out
>> Vice President Dick Cheney is claiming that, for the purposes of securing classified information, his office is not part of the executive branch. Exactly which branch are you in then, Mr. Vice President? [Raw Story]
>> Are you ready for another severe thunderstorm alert? The National Weather Service just issued one from now until 10 p.m.
>> There's a book launch party tonight for Murray Waas' The United States vs. I. Lewis Libby. Somehow we doubt the City Paper's Erik Wemple and Jason Cherkis were invited. [Fishbowl DC]
>> The people of McAllen, TX, angry over the Department of Homeland Security's plan to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border just outside their town, are proposing a wall of their own. The McAllen Chamber of Commerce has launched a campaign to build a wall around Washington, D.C. -- or at least the federal government buildings. If it would at all prevent Congress from meddling in our local issues, consider us sold. [San Antonio Express-News via Free Ride]
>> Just What the World Needs, Another DC Sports Bashing Piece... [The Upstate Life]
Photo by JamesCalder
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As I recall from high school civics, the Vice President is an officer of the Senate, and so the Office of the Vice President is part of the LEGISLATIVE branch.
The office of the VP is in the executive branch. The individual who occupies it also serves as the President of the Senate. If it was actually a legislative post, we would elect the President of the Senate who would also serve as VP. People need more civics than they get in high school.
You could not be more wrong.
Article 1 (The Legislature) Section 3 (The Senate) describes the Vice President's role as Presidnt of the Senate.
Article 2 (The Executive) Section 1 (The President) describes the manner in which the President and Vice President are elected.
There is no Executive Article titled The Vice President.
The Vice President's salary is paid through the Senate, not the Executive branch.
The VP's Constitutional role is Legislative, and as such his office is not considered part of the Executive branch. Many people work on behalf of the President, and any work the VP (or anyone else) does on behalf of the Executive branch, becomes privileged to the extent of executive privilege. However the VP's work as President of the Senate is not covered under executive privilege.
oh shit, looks like tanya passed her AP exam!
Article 1 Section 3 Clause 4 states: "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided."
If the VP was part of the legislative branch there would be more in Article 1 about choosing the position. In fact, there is only 1 clause about him (stated above). Article 2 (the executive article) talks about the VP in section 1, clause 1, 3, 6 and the entirety of section 4. Misreading the Constitution to argue that the VP is in fact a member of the Legislative branch is obscene. And as an above poster noted, if he was a member of the Senate he'd have legislative powers greater than breaking a tied vote.
Actually, tanya didn't say that all of the VP's work falls outside of what the archives want:
"...the VP's work as President of the Senate is not covered under executive privilege."
So it's not obscene, it's a pretty literal translation (as literal as one can get with such a loose document)
I love that picture. It's from one of the pieces in Site Project on 14th Street called Desolation Doorhangers I think.
reader - thanks for knowing the name of the installation! i'll update the tags on my flickr pics accordingly.
If Cheney does, in fact, fall under the legislative branch rather than the executive, then he can't go around claiming executive privilege to keep external oversight committees from knowing what he's doing.
Cheney's trying to have it both ways. He gets unfettered access to classified material as a member of the executive branch (info that a legislative branch member would have more difficulty getting). But then he says he doesn't have to file reports with the archives because he is also a member of the legislative branch and the executive order only applies to entities that are exclusively part of executive branch. He's not arguing that there's info he's collected as President of the Senate that he doesn't have to report on.
Heck, he filed reports a couple of times (his predecessors always filed) and then suddenly said "nope, not me."
I'm the artist who did the doorknob hanger. I have eight different statements and it is part of site projects DC, a public art project organized by the WPA. I'll be putting them up again from time to time on 14th St. between P & V until July 28th. You can find out more at www.heshproducts.com.