Henry Waxman: “over the past week, the country did a collective double-take, as one commentator said, when they heard that Vice…”

“over the past week, the country did a collective double-take, as one commentator said, when they heard that Vice President Cheney does not believe he is part of the executive branch. That's why Representative Emanuel has proposed his amendment today. This issue first came to the public's attention last week when I wrote to the Vice President asking why he blocked efforts by the National Archives to conduct security inspections of his office, as required by the President's own executive order. The response was that the Vice President's office was not an entity within the executive branch. Legal experts ridiculed this argument, and late-night comics got some good new material. But the Vice President's extreme aversion to any oversight whatsoever, by Congress or even by his own Administration, is not a laughing matter. The Vice President has claimed special privileges that even the President doesn't have. The Vice President has unilaterally claimed an absolute exemption from inspections, while other White House offices comply with the executive order.”