It's About Time
There was a report in the New York Times earlier this month and then in Russ Neal’s column in the 9/14 Paradise Post, that Dick Chaney’s power is waning. I wonder what took so long. It has been totally baffling to me why Cheney seems able to do and say whatever he pleases without accountability to anyone. When an effort is made to look into what he is doing, it inevitably fails.
A case in point was the Government Accountability Office (GAO) attempting to obtain factual information regarding the process by which the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) was carrying out its work. This attempt to obtain information from NEPDG, which Cheney chaired, was blocked at every turn with delayed responses, passing of useless documents, and outright refusals. How can the Vice President of our country block the efforts of one of our government agencies, interfering with the very purpose for which the agency was created?
If everything the NEPDG was doing was on the up and up, then why the secrecy? One of Dr. Phil’s sayings is “Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.� That being the case, the opposite is likely to be just as true - those who have much to hide, hide everything. Hmmm…might that be the explanation for Dick Cheney’s excessive secrecy?
Speaking of secrecy - I read in the August Hightower Lowdown that between 2001 and 2004, there was an 81% increase in the number of government documents declared secret. 81% - that’s huge! If the secrecy doesn’t bother you, what about the cost? At $460 per document, the 15.6 million documents declared secret in 2004 cost $7.2 billion to classify… and remember folks, that’s our tax money paying for it!
Cheney claimed he has the same inherent authority as the president to mark “secret� any document he chooses. He further claims he does not have to report the number of documents he marks secret to anyone, not even the president. Article II of the Constitution lays out the Executive Branch of our government and its power. The first line reads The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. Note that it does not say the power shall be vested in a President and Vice President. So where, exactly does Dick Cheney think his “inherent� powers come from?
No other Vice President in the history of our country has claimed inherent authority such as this. Why is this man allowed to refuse accountability to anyone for his decisions and actions? Why is he allowed to declare information secret for no reason other than because he says so… and at such huge costs to taxpayers? Why is he allowed to make statements in interviews and speeches that are blatantly untrue and when called on it, get away with simply saying, as he so often does, “I disagree� as though his disagreement is sufficient explanation? And all this is from a man who has racked up an extraordinary number of mistakes and misjudgments in his career and especially in the past 5 years. Is his arrogance so intimidating that no one is willing to stand up to him? Who is this man? Or more to the point… just who does this man think he is?