Just days ago, Vice President Dick Cheney argued that he didn't have to obey an Executive Order regarding the handling of classified information, because he's not part of the Executive Branch. People who've skimmed Article II of the U.S. Constitution laughed so hard they got hernias.
So deafening was the nationwide guffaw, that Cheney's team crafted another response yesterday -- this time in writing. Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington wrote that the Executive Order clearly exempted Cheney from the rules but didn't point out text to that effect (Washington Post).
Oddly, Addington did not repeat Cheney's earlier argument about not being part of the executive branch. Perhaps Cheney figures that silently abandoning the argument will erase it from the public's mind, like that flashy-thingy Tommy Lee Jones used in Men in Black.
Giving credit where it's due, Cheney's team did show immense courage when risking enormous ridicule to take the argument out for a test drive in the first place. See background and Jon Stewart's take on Cheney.
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