***** Cheney sure loves to claim executive privilege.

Remember this?


In the face of political pressure to comply with congressional
investigators, Vice President ***** Cheney said Sunday he will not
release internal documents connected to the development of President
Bush's energy plan.

That refusal is expected to fuel political outcries that the
administration is hiding information about its relationship with Enron
Corp., and may prompt the General Accounting Office -- Congress'
nonpartisan investigative arm -- to file a rare lawsuit against the
White House.

Cheney, who was asked on Sunday-morning news programs to defend his
position, said White House attorneys looked into the matter and
concluded that documents gathered by the task force he headed are
protected by the rules of executive privilege. -- Houston Chronicle,
2002 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/enron/1228658.html


And this?


Because Libby and Cheney were so involved in US policy, ''you'll see a
lot come out" about the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Fortier said,
creating more headaches for an administration defending an
increasingly unpopular war.

The Bush White House is ''particularly jealous" about keeping
administration documents and decision-making from public view, Fortier
said.

He predicted that Cheney, who fought and won the right to keep the
work of the energy task force secret, may well try to exert executive
privilege if he is called to testify. -- Boston Globe, 2005
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/29/despite_urging_calm_for_libby_cheney_may_face_firestorm_too/


And this?


A new executive privilege battle is looming in Washington as a federal
appeals court considers whether to intervene in an election-eve
dispute over records of visitors to Vice President Cheney's home at
the Naval Observatory, as well as his offices in the White House
complex.

(snip)

"Disclosure of the records at issue could reveal an ever-expanding
mosaic that would allow observers to chart the course of vice
presidential contacts and deliberations in unprecedented fashion,"
government attorneys argued in a brief filed yesterday.

"Such an unwarranted intrusion into the most sensitive deliberations
of the vice presidency cannot be countenanced." -- New York Sun, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/42686?access=533496


Well hold onto your hats and let the spin begin!

It turns out that for the last four years, despite repeatedly claiming
executive privilege to avoid having to do such annoying things as
testify before Congress, ***** Cheney has been preventing the National
Archives' Information Security Oversight Office from performing a
mandatory inspection of his office by claiming - get this - that he's
not part of the Executive Branch.

According to the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-cheney22jun22,1,7221944.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=2&cset=true


For the last four years, Vice President ***** Cheney has made the
controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush
administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order
regulating federal agencies' handling of classified national security
information, officials said Thursday.

Cheney has held that his office is not fully part of the executive
branch of government despite the continued objections of the National
Archives, which says his office's failure to demonstrate that it has
proper security safeguards in place could jeopardize the government's
top secrets.


How convenient!

The vice president is a member of the Executive Branch when he needs
to claim executive privilege, but not a member of the Executive Branch
when that would mean having to open his records to the National
Archives.

You know, this kinda reminds me of the time in 2003 that Cheney said
of Halliburton,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/politics/main575356.shtml
"I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my
financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any
kind and haven't had, now, for over three years," and then it turned
out that just two years later his Halliburton stock options rose by
3,281%.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_rose_3281_last_1011.html

Talk about having your cake and eating it.

(Or in Cheney's case, having your blood and drinking it.)


By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Harry

***** Cheney sure loves to claim executive privilege.

Remember this?


In the face of political pressure to comply with congressional
investigators, Vice President ***** Cheney said Sunday he will not
release internal documents connected to the development of President
Bush's energy plan.

That refusal is expected to fuel political outcries that the
administration is hiding information about its relationship with Enron
Corp., and may prompt the General Accounting Office -- Congress'
nonpartisan investigative arm -- to file a rare lawsuit against the
White House.

Cheney, who was asked on Sunday-morning news programs to defend his
position, said White House attorneys looked into the matter and
concluded that documents gathered by the task force he headed are
protected by the rules of executive privilege. -- Houston Chronicle,
2002 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/enron/1228658.html


And this?


Because Libby and Cheney were so involved in US policy, ''you'll see a
lot come out" about the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, Fortier said,
creating more headaches for an administration defending an
increasingly unpopular war.

The Bush White House is ''particularly jealous" about keeping
administration documents and decision-making from public view, Fortier
said.

He predicted that Cheney, who fought and won the right to keep the
work of the energy task force secret, may well try to exert executive
privilege if he is called to testify. -- Boston Globe, 2005
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/29/despite_urgin
g_calm_for_libby_cheney_may_face_firestorm_too/


And this?


A new executive privilege battle is looming in Washington as a federal
appeals court considers whether to intervene in an election-eve
dispute over records of visitors to Vice President Cheney's home at
the Naval Observatory, as well as his offices in the White House
complex.

(snip)

"Disclosure of the records at issue could reveal an ever-expanding
mosaic that would allow observers to chart the course of vice
presidential contacts and deliberations in unprecedented fashion,"
government attorneys argued in a brief filed yesterday.

"Such an unwarranted intrusion into the most sensitive deliberations
of the vice presidency cannot be countenanced." -- New York Sun, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/42686?access=533496


Well hold onto your hats and let the spin begin!

It turns out that for the last four years, despite repeatedly claiming
executive privilege to avoid having to do such annoying things as
testify before Congress, ***** Cheney has been preventing the National
Archives' Information Security Oversight Office from performing a
mandatory inspection of his office by claiming - get this - that he's
not part of the Executive Branch.

According to the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-cheney22jun22,1,7221944
.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=2&cset=true


For the last four years, Vice President ***** Cheney has made the
controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush
administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order
regulating federal agencies' handling of classified national security
information, officials said Thursday.

Cheney has held that his office is not fully part of the executive
branch of government despite the continued objections of the National
Archives, which says his office's failure to demonstrate that it has
proper security safeguards in place could jeopardize the government's
top secrets.


How convenient!

The vice president is a member of the Executive Branch when he needs
to claim executive privilege, but not a member of the Executive Branch
when that would mean having to open his records to the National
Archives.

You know, this kinda reminds me of the time in 2003 that Cheney said
of Halliburton,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/politics/main575356.shtml
"I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my
financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any
kind and haven't had, now, for over three years," and then it turned
out that just two years later his Halliburton stock options rose by
3,281%.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_rose_3281_last_1011.html

Talk about having your cake and eating it.

(Or in Cheney's case, having your blood and drinking it.)


By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Harry