as an office outside of both the executive and legislative branches but partaking of the powers of both the vice president is allowed to vote himself as much power as he damn well pleases.
oh and uh, as much funding as he pleases too.
I don't trust Emanuel at all, so I don't like him much. But, because of things like this, I also kind of love him. He's a Bill Lambier politician: virulently hate him for legitimate reasons when he's on the other team, love and forgive him when he's on your team.
At this point I don't care if he's trustworthy. I'm just happy to see someone on our side who's not rolling over and whimpering in the face of the Bushies.
The Democrats need more assholes. In a similar vein, they probably need to put more effort into splitting or even winning over the gun-nut crowd.
There'd be a good argument for zeroing funding for the Veep's office whether or not Cheney wants to abide with the records rules.
Emanuel should be put in a cage and only let out rto attack Republicans.
But if he's not in the Executive Branch, he can't claim executive privilege... Energy Task Force, anyone?
8:Grrrr. My claim, tho I am not sure what the VP claim is, is that the OVP is an Executive Branch Office not connected to the Presidency. Or part of the Legislative Branch. Or a 4th branch of gov't. In my interpretation, the President can no more tell the VP what to do than he can tell the Senate to stop a filibuster. The President can tell the VP what not to do. Pres can ban the VP from Cabinet and NatSec meetings. I am not sure how Bush will respond to a defunding of the VP, but Congress certainly has that power.
However this will get the issue discussed.
10:No kudos to Rahm, this is simply the Congress doing it's job. Congress & the President should be in constant confrontation to the point of a Constitutional Crisis. They should no more "get along" than Coke & Pepsi should get along. Each branch should work to maximize it's power and advantage at all times.
My concept of Congress would say:"John Edwards, you have a health-care plan? Goody for you. Eat it. Kennedy & Clinton have a health-care plan, and they are the ones who will pass it and pay for it. You can veto it or sign, with comment, but policy is not your job."
A Presidential health-care plan is what gets us stuff like Gitmo. Clinton also though he was a real important dude, and rendition was a slam dunk. Make the Pres the flunky go-for he is supposed to be.
Everybody wants a king, freeing us from the sausage factory.
And yet the constitution explicitly calls for the President to, from time, present to the Congress such measures as he shall deem necessary...
Sure, there's nothing that says the Congress has to agree, but to condemn a President for following his mandated roles seems silly.
11:Georges Sorel. I like sausage-making.
12:My poly-sci anger and contempt is mostly directed at Congress, tho sometimes I dislike particular Presidents. The Clinton health-care failure should have taught us something, something other than that we need slicker, smarter Presidents.
"A Presidential health-care plan is what gets us stuff like Gitmo."
And I thought Sicko covered some bad insurance plans...
I may be mistaken, but I think Emanuel (D., Ill. 5th) is actually Adam's Congressman.
Durbin and Obama are my senators, in case anyone was wondering about that. Now everyone knows my entire federal congressional delegation.
Adam, why don't you just go ahead and post your address? Then we can look up your city councilman and block captain, too.
You know, weirdly, I'd prefer for that kind of data to remain private!
I totally want to gay marry Rahm Emanuel now.
Not all male ballet dancers are gay, Walt Someguy. Sheesh.
I can only gay marry male ballet dancers that are actually gay? Wow, this gay marriage thing sucks. Sorry, Rahm, I guess I'll just have to leave you to whatever minimal pleasures you can achieve as House Democratic Caucus Chairman.
So well played that it replicated the conversation I had with my (conservative) dad three months ago! Woo-hoo!
Next up: tying farm subsidies to electoral college reform and patrolling Iraq with a foreign legion.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=1
[btw]
Good move. As you know, my answer to this is marginally more radical - if Cheney is both part of the legislature and executive, and therefore cannot be observed without the wave-function collapsing into one state or the other as per Schrödinger and Heisenberg, how can we even prove that he exists? Arguably, if it is impossible to demonstrate that he exists independently of the observer, there is no legal or constitutional justification to fund him, copy him in on the paper flow, or for civil servants to obey him.
He's my Congressman. The problem is that his being an asshole sometimes manifests itself as, oh, pressuring Democratic house members in swing states to vote for Tom Tancredo's immigration bill (even as Rahm votes against it himself), or trying to strip amendments forbidding using appropriations for war with Iran out of the defense appropriations bill. But he's not afraid of a fight, just fairly amoral, so occasionally he comes up with a good move.
My district, as far as I'm concerned, is liberal enough to do much better.
Katherine, think of your district as one big cage, a la comment 7.
Can Cheney be expelled from the Senate like a normal member?
"A Presidential health-care plan is what gets us stuff like Gitmo."
And I thought Sicko covered some bad insurance plans...
Actually, as Sicko makes clear, you get better health care as a prisoner in GTMO than you do as a WTC rescue worker in New York. Moore (who is fat) actually took a few asbestosis victims up to the Cuban side of the GTMO wire and shouted over to the garrison, asking if they could get "the same health care as the terrorists".