The Vice President does not exist

Indeed, that's the only conclusion one logically can draw from the position taken by Dick "Dick" Cheney's office, as reported by tristero at Digby's place.

See, the National Archives wanted to, you know, do their job, and so they asked the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for certain documents and materials that they are required to collect under federal law. OVP didn't want to comply (gee, what do you suppose they have to hide, anyway?), and so they tried a couple of, um, innovative ways to avoid coughing up the docs.

The [House] Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman [Henry A.] Waxman [(D-Calif.)] to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

Take a moment to savor that. In chronological order: OVP first tried to abolish a federal agency that was implementing an order by the Vice President's lackey boss, Drunky McStagger; then, when that didn't work, they simply claimed that they aren't subject to the executive order because they aren't part of the executive branch.

If you drill down a little farther, you find OVP's apparent rationale (PDF) for the latter conclusion, as stated in a letter by J. William Leonard, director of the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), to OVP on June 8, 2006:

An interpretation [that OVP is not an "entity within the executive branch"] relative to the Order is fairly recent, since up until 2002 the OVP did submit annual reports to this office. Furthermore, if the OVP is not to be considered an entity within the executive branch, I am concerned that this could possibly impede access to classified information by OVP staff, since such access would be considered a disclosure outside the executive branch. While I recognize that OVP staff personnel may, at times, be supporting the Vice President's performance of legislative duties, I believe it is fair to state that most, if not all, disclosures of classified information to OVP staff by other agencies and entities within the executive branch has been regarded by those agencies as disclosures within the executive branch, since they occur in support of the Vice President's performance of executive duties.

So, basically, OVP said (in an article in the Chicago Tribune) that because they fulfill both legislative (in that the Vice President is president of the Senate) and executive functions, they therefore are not part of the executive branch. ISOO director Leonard parries that argument skillfully, stating that it would hardly do for OVP to be executive in one instance (receiving classified information from other executive branch entities) but not in the other (having to release documents to ISOO).

I would go one step further. The U.S. Constitution -- yes, I know it's hard to read after the Bush crime syndicate has shit all over it, but bear with me -- mentions the Vice President in both Articles I and II, which establish respectively the legislative and executive functions of the federal government.

Art. I, sec. 3, paras. 4-5:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

Art. II, sec. 1, paras. 1, 3, & 6:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

So, while the Vice President presides over the Senate, he is elected "together with" the President and, indeed, the office is created within Article II. In other words, Article I stipulates one (and only one) duty of the Vice President, but the very existence of the office depends on Article II -- which deals with executive power.

I'll say that one more time for the Republicans slow readers: The Constitution provides that the Vice President is an executive officer with one legislative duty. It's really that simple.

Chairman Waxman has produced a fact sheet (PDF) listing all the ways in which "Dick" has tried to avoid oversight, from concealing travel paid for by special interests to hiding information about visitors to the Cheneys' publicly-funded residence. I won't list all of them here (go see the document (again, PDF) for yourself), but the extent of unethical -- indeed, potentially criminal -- behavior exhibited by the Vice President is appalling.

Pretty serious stuff for someone who doesn't exist.

Condi Rice says no to Congress

Looks like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is going to defy the subpoena issued by a House committee.

Rice said she would respond by mail to questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Bush administration's prewar claims about Saddam Hussein seeking weapons of mass destruction, but signaled she would not appear in person.

"I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter," she told reporters in Oslo, where she is attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

The comments were her first reaction to a subpoena issued on Wednesday by the committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Rice said she respected the oversight function of the legislative branch, but maintained she had already testified in person and under oath about claims that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa during her confirmation hearing for the job of secretary of state.

"I addressed these questions, almost the same questions, during my confirmation hearing," she said. "This is an issue that has been answered and answered and answered."

Contempt of Congress is such an ugly concept, isn't it? But it looks good on Condi ... wonder how she'd look in orange, say, a jumpsuit?