If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that's obviously his call. President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.Josh Marshall, on the out-going V.P.'s remarks:
...the very fact that we can even be having a conversation about the prerogative powers of the vice presidency is a testament to the world of Alice in Wonderland constitutionalism that has been a hallmark of Cheney's time in office.Yeah...the over reach of the President and Vice-President these past eight years is beyond lawless. These guys essentially wiped their asses with the Constitution and as such they need to be punished. I understand the political motives of focusing on the future and putting the Bush years behind us. But at the constitutional level, we can't put them behind us. The way I see it, Obama and Biden can do the "looking forward" thing while the Justice Department, in cooperation with Congress, investigate exactly what these two fuckers did. Impeachment isn't necessarily off the table once they leave office. If anything, they'd have that "guilty" verdict forever associated with their term in office and they would lose their presidential pension (money neither one of them would really miss). But when push comes to shove, Bush and Cheney need to pay for their domestic crimes. And once that happens, they should be put under international arrest for their war crime atrocities in Iraq and Gitmo.
The point is, they need to be punished...severely. To let them go unscathed goes against everything our founding fathers stood for. Lincoln may be rolling over in his grave at the conduct of Illinois Gov. Blagojavich, but George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin have been rolling over in theirs at the conduct of these two criminals since January 20, 2001.
