It was refreshing to see Joe Biden refuse to take the diplomatic route about Dick Cheney's preposterous statements on -- where else? -- Fox News Sunday about the sweeping powers that the Constitution grants the vice-president. Biden was having none of it. He didn't simply dismiss the notion that the vice-president has what amounts to monarchical authority, but also the president. Biden emphatically rejected what he rightly called the "unitary executive" theory of the presidency -- the flapdoodle cooked up by David Addington and John Yoo to legitimize torture and a host of other unseemly policies pursued by the Bush administration. This was simply another variant of Richard Nixon's "when the president does it, it isn't illegal" contention.
Even if Cheney remains deaf to the obvious, it is. Cheney's sour remarks are a reminder of why he and Bush can't depart Washington too soon. While Bush has at least feinted at second thoughts in his recent appearance at the American Enterprise Institute, which prompted the Washington Post's Dana Milbank to call him "a walking confession booth," Cheney has remained unrepentant. So has William Kristol's Weekly Standard, which features a hatchet-job on Barton Gellman's excellent study of Cheney's operational code, Angler. As the Bush administration reaches it final weeks, however, Cheney appears to be out of angles. The most he can do is grouse about the ungratefulness of his detractors for his tireless efforts on behalf of the nation. But Biden had it right: Bush and Cheney's ham-fisted war on terror has created rather than suppressed terrorists. Too bad the Democrats didn't take a more vigorous stand, however, when it counted. It remains an amazing fact that Obama was one of the few to denounce the Iraq War even before it was launched. The other prescient voice was Brent Scowcroft, who put it simply in the August 15, 2002 Wall Street Journal: "Don't attack Saddam."
The good news is this: Barack Obama seems to be including Biden in all significant meetings and has now tapped him to oversee a "White House Task Force on Working Families." It doesn't appear to be simply a token task force. It's supposed to push for reforms and develop policy proposals, which can't come too quickly. Oh, and guess what? It won't be operating in secret, either.
He was not a gaffe-prone buffoon about him either. That is a myth that the media has nutured. When you speak a lot occasionally things are going to come out wrong. When the media are watching and making a point of featuring everything that is misspoken then they make something big out of something inconsequential.
I will always feel privileged to have met him, listened to him speak, had him sign my copy of his book, and to have gotten a hug and kiss on the cheek (me and a number of others). I helped with Jill when she came out too, and she is a very impressive lady - a real sweetheart who, as Joe says, is drop-dead gorgeous. Also had coffee one morning in a small group with Beau, who is a chip off the ol' block, and has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen on a man. Pretty much met the whole family. Great people.
BIDEN: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."
He didn't say Article I defines the executive branch; he said Article I defines the role of vice president, an office that happens to be in the executive branch. And he's right; Article I is the only place in the document where the VP's role (president of the Senate) is defined. The mention of the VP in Article II deals with how the VP is elected and the line of succession. (It's this very lack of definition of the VP's role outside the Senate that allowed Cheney to make it up as he went along.)
I too enjoy a good Biden gaffe now and again. But this wasn't one of them.
And to quote from a previous national security report put out by the -- the intelligence community, we have -- we have created, not dissuaded, more terrorists as a consequence of this policy."
Go, Joe Biden! Bring the Bush torture team to justice!
You took the words right out of my mouth. Outside of the added "WTF?"
DId you MISS the protests in the streets? DId you miss that he had to cheat to win the second time around (as well as the first)???? Most Americans did NOT think he was doing OK.
Many Americans weeped when he invaded Iraq. Many Americans weeped when he decimated the constitution and took apart the checks and balances that indeed make a democracy. And many Americans weeped as he used the DoJ for partisan attacks during elections and stacked it with ideologues.
EPIC fail. Where have you been? Is Princess DI still alive in your world?
"Biden emphatically rejected what he rightly called the "unitary executive" theory of the presidency -- the flapdoodle cooked up by David Addington and John Yoo to legitimize torture and a host of other unseemly policies pursued by the Bush administration"
Unseemly? No.
Illegal.
When are we going to impeach, investigate, prosecute? Are we really going to let these crooks, these murderers, these would-be kings get away with this? Obama's tenor of conciliation indicates that we just might.
Meanwhile, the crooks, the liars, the murderers-in-chief gloat as they slouch off the stage, knowing the ugly truth: America no longer has the political will, the idealistic spirit the -- to be blunt -- balls to stand up to a tyrant like Dick Cheney.
Sad, sad times.
The Democrats should have impeached Bush and Cheney. Cheney is that arrogant because he knows nothing will happen to him. He is basically mocking the Democratic party, who he know should have thrown him and his president out of office, but were too weak.
And then you would have had Nancy Pelosi as President.
Would that have made you feel better?
Thank you for a great post, Mr. Heilbrunn, it is always nice to read about Mr. Biden, and your use of “flapdoodle” quite made my day.
I read about Angler and it is truly a scary tale about cheney. We can say that pretty much Cheney was running things almost completely in the first term.
An ideological zealot and a very scary person in power. Much of the crimes done by this administration seemed to come from this awful man