No Checks, No Balances -- No Supervision?

David Jackson writes in USA Today: "If Vice President Cheney believes his office is not an 'entity within the executive branch,' then a House Democratic leader says taxpayers shouldn't have to finance his executive expenses."

See my columns on Thursday and Friday for more.

Editorial Watch

USA Today: "Though Cheney's office selectively leaked classified material to buttress the administration's case for invading Iraq, the controversy over security procedures isn't really whether Cheney is being irresponsible with classified documents. He has broad power to classify and declassify. But exempting himself from reasonable restrictions and safeguards on a 'trust me' basis simply says that he considers himself to be above the law and his actions to be beyond review.

"Administration defenders should stop to think: Would they really want a Democratic president and vice president to take such an elastic view of the law if the White House changes hands next year?

"Whichever party is in power, it's hard to imagine a surer way for leaders to get the country in trouble than to mix arrogance with secrecy."

The New York Times: "President Bush has turned the executive branch into a two-way mirror. They get to see everything Americans do: our telephone calls, e-mail, and all manner of personal information. And we get to see nothing about what they do. . . .

"Governments have to keep secrets. But this administration has grossly abused that trust, routinely using claims of national security to hide policies that are immoral and almost certainly illegal, to avoid embarrassment, and to pursue Mr. Bush's dreams of an imperial presidency."

The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's all of a piece with a troubling view of the presidency that affords it expansive powers with few checks. The focus here is on Cheney. But while the vice president may look like a loose cannon, he could not operate as he does -- certainly, not ignoring an executive order -- without his boss' implicit approval."

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The intransigence is especially significant because in the aftermath of the 9-11 terror attacks, Cheney legal counselor David Addington devised procedures 'to insure that virtually all important documents relating to national-security matters were seen by the vice-president's office,' The New Yorker reported last year.

"If the vice president can't be monitored in even this minimal way, how can he be held accountable? . . .

"The Bush administration has -- erroneously, in many cases -- grabbed broad executive powers. But even a wimpy president ought to be able to expect the vice president to comply with an order covering executive entities. Unless we're ready to delete the Vice before Cheney's name."

The Sacramento Bee: "It has long seemed that Vice President Dick Cheney believes that laws don't apply to him, but now it's official. . . .

"Cheney's claim is not the most serious of the administration's efforts to put itself above the law. It is, however, one of the most blatant -- and most gallingly arrogant -- examples."

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "The issue is but one in which Cheney has pulled a cloak of secrecy over his office. He has blocked information about who visits his home and office, his political appointees, where he travels and how much his travel costs, among other matters. While some of these may be rightly kept secret, the vice president has come to believe he is free from checks or scrutiny. He needs to be dissuaded."

The Roanoke Times: "The power-hungry muscle that Cheney, by all appearances, is able to flex within the administration is mind-boggling. Worse, it is just one of many illustrations of a strong leaning toward secrecy that runs counter to basic principles of democratic governance. Cheney has demonstrated an eerie ability to get those around him to come along for the cloaked ride.

"Cheney's desire to circumvent the executive order's purpose -- to 'prescribe a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding and declassifying national security information' -- raises serious questions about his ability to protect national security secrets. Already, his track record is shaky."

And Maureen Dowd writes in her New York Times opinion column (subscription required): "It's hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month. . . .

"I've always thought Cheney was way out there -- the most Voldemort-like official I've run across. But even in my harshest musings about the vice president, I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet -- a separate entity from the White House.

"I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it's quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution."

Warrantless Wiretapping Watch

Gellman and Becker describe how Cheney and his loyalists kept their warrantless wiretapping plan secret from officials who were likely to object. Their decision not to try to find accommodation with their critics reverberates to this day.

Michael J. Sniffen writes for the Associated Press: "A federal judge who used to authorize wiretaps in terrorist and espionage cases criticized President Bush's decision to order warrantless surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Royce Lamberth, a district court judge in Washington, said Saturday it was proper for executive branch agencies to conduct such surveillance. 'But what we have found in the history of our country is that you can't trust the executive,' he said at the American Library Association's convention.

"'We have to understand you can fight the war (on terrorism) and lose everything if you have no civil liberties left when you get through fighting the war,' said Lamberth, who was appointed by President Reagan. . . .

"'The executive has to fight and win the war at all costs. But judges understand the war has to be fought, but it can't be at all costs,' Lamberth said. 'We still have to preserve our civil liberties. Judges are the kinds of people you want to entrust that kind of judgment to more than the executive.'"

Detainee Watch

And in the latest detainee news, Carol D. Leonnig and Josh White write in The Washington Post: "A military officer and former member of a Pentagon unit that decided to indefinitely imprison some detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq has said in a sworn affidavit that the process of reviewing their cases was 'fundamentally flawed' and that the results were influenced by pressure from superiors rather than based on concrete evidence.

"Stephen Abraham, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and a lawyer, said the military placed too much weight on unsubstantiated statements by intelligence agencies in deciding that the detainees were enemy combatants, according to his affidavit. That conclusion meant that the detainees could be kept in a prison in Guantanamo as long as the U.S. military wished. . . .

"The tribunals at the heart of Abraham's concerns have long been controversial because their verdicts are pronounced by three military officers after brief hearings, and detainees are frequently denied an opportunity to call witnesses who can testify on their behalf. Detainees also are not entitled to have an attorney present, and they have no right to see classified materials relevant to their fate.

"The Defense Department started the process at Guantanamo in August 2004, after the Supreme Court said the United States could not hold prisoners indefinitely without a competent review."

William Glaberson writes in the New York Times: "Military officials have said they scoured intelligence records to ensure that the detainees were terrorists and other enemies of the United States. But Mr. Abraham portrayed a haphazard and arbitrary process, and he took issue with military assertions that there were careful reviews to gather any evidence that might clear detainees."

Cartoon Watch

Ann Telnaes on Cheney as Richard III.