Jim's NowPublic Postings: Cheney must keep records, judge orders

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Saturday ordered Dick Cheney to preserve a wide range of the records from his time as vice president.

Dick Cheney and the Bush administration were sued to ensure that presidential records are not destroyed.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is a setback for the Bush administration in its effort to promote a narrow definition of materials that must be safeguarded under by the Presidential Records Act.

The Bush administration's legal position "heightens the court's concern" that some records may not be preserved, said the judge.

One would have to assume that the records in question or part of them has to do with things like intelligence reports before going to war with Iraq. The Bush administration has repeatedly been accused of crafting their war policy around faulty intel.

A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is suing Cheney and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.

In a 22-page opinion, the judge revealed that in recent days, lawyers for the Bush administration balked at a proposed agreement between the two sides on how to proceed with the case.

Cheney and the other defendants in the case "were only willing to agree to a preservation order that tracked their narrowed interpretation" of the Presidential Records Act, wrote Kollar-Kotelly.

The administration, said the judge, wanted any court order on what records are at issue in the case to cover only the office of the vice president, not Cheney or the other defendants in the lawsuit.

The other defendants are the Executive Office of the President and the National Archives.

The lawsuit stems from Cheney's position that his office is not part of the executive branch of government.

He's not a part of the executive branch? DID he or did he NOT run on the same ticket as Bush? Is this man really so "above the law" that he feels he can duck the law by claiming he's not a part of the executive branch? Oh wait, maybe he feels he's part of the legislative branch because all he does is cast tie breaking votes in the Senate. It's a fact that all Senators and Vice Presidents are actually a part of the executive branch, otherwise why would we need a presidental order of succession should something happen to Bush and Cheney that made it necessary to elevate Pelosi to the Whitehouse.

This summer, Cheney chief of staff David Addington told Congress that the vice president belongs to neither the executive nor legislative branch of government but rather is attached by the Constitution to Congress. The vice president presides over the Senate.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bush administration's actions over the past 7½ years raise questions over whether the White House will turn over records created by Cheney and his staff to the National Archives in January.

In 2003, Cheney asserted that the office of the vice president is not an entity within the executive branch.

Two historians and three groups of historians and archivists joined CREW in filing the suit two weeks ago

Perhaps someone should tell Palin that should she win, she's not getting all she seems to think she's going for. Maybe that will tone down her attitude.

It is also quite clear that Obama, in chosing Biden for his VP was looking out for the best interest of the country by choosing someone with Biden's experience, where as McCain picked Palin not for her ability to be vice president OR eventual president, (she seems to have neither) but rather to attract disgruntled women voters who felt Hilary should have gotten the nomination, or the woman who just flat out feel it's time for a woman to break the glass ceiling.

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Cheney must keep records, judge orders

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