’)
I don’t do these fact check things because the campaign hires a big staff with far more time and resources and expertise than I have to do so, which you can see here. But this one was such a whiff I thought it was worth noting. This is basic stuff, the kind we who are a product of the much derided public school system learn at an early age. Basic stuff.
On Thursday night, Sen. Biden said this:
Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.
Writing on the McCain campaign blog, former Weekly Standard writer Michael Goldfarb said:
Article 1 of the Constitution does not, in fact, define the role of the Vice President of the United States. It defines the role of the legislative branch, otherwise known as the branch in which Joe Biden has served for the last 36 years.
Article 1, Section 3 of the United States Constitution:
The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
The Senate can’t elect a President Pro Tempore if the Vice President is present. Palin thinks she can run the show! She can only vote in a tie but the she thinks the Constitution says she can BE the parliamentarian.
Palin says: “Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that’s not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.”
The Constitution says: “The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.”
You’re kidding right?
The role of the vice president is in fact hardly defined at all in the constitution, and it has generally grown or shrunk to fit the competence and ambition of the officeholder. Insofar as their role is defined at all, it is done in Article I. Article II only specifies that there will be one, and how he is chosen.
[...] snap! I guess Goldfarb showed Biden, huh? Wait… Wait a minute. Oliver Willis actually manages to dig up something (yeah, I could have looked it up, but if someone already did the work, why bother?). In section 3 [...]
Jay,
David Addington, chief of staff and former legal counsel to Cheney, told congress that the office of the VP is not a part of any of the three branches of government as defined by the Constitution.
Why don’t you help us out and explain what Mr. Addington meant?
And while we’re pinning you down, which branch do YOU consider the OVP to be part of?
Eh, what the hell. It’s just a goddamned piece of paper.
What Duros said. McCain’s handlers understand the Constitution pretty well, it’s just that Republicans don’t care about the rule of law. Back in 2004, Rove honestly thought that Americans would never vote Democrat again as they will this November. The move was on to ensure sweeping executive powers for the POTUS, forever and ever and ever.
When Obama is elected, it’ll be very interesting and/or amusing to see the same Republican legal-eagles argue that the POTUS has no authority beyond a veto power.
Hehe. Suck on it, Jay.
Biden: The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch.
The way he phrased that I initially took it that he was saying Article I defines the Executive Branch and because VP is defined in that Article clearly VP is in the Executive Branch. But Article I defines the Legislative Branch doesn’t which I’m sure Biden knows so I’m not sure he really was clear there as he could have been.
No offense, Sean, but neither are you.
RRider: Stoopid question. Everyone knows that Cheney is fourth branch!
Biden was half right. Article I refers to the Vice President as President of the Senate, only. It is Article II that discusses the Vice President as being part of the Executive Branch and defines his role in the election process, albeit as President of the Senate.
Duros: No offense, Sean, but neither are you.
None taken. I kinda whammied myself in an edit, didn’t get the phrase I was removing completely deleted.
“But Article I defines the Legislative Branch
doesn’twhich I’m sure Biden knows…”A little fixed.
Look, let’s put this in a package that Joe Six-Pack can really understand, in terms so moronic as to command their most pablum-sucking assent: Suppose you, Joe Six-Pack, were given the responsibility of electing the owner of an NFL franchise, your favorite team in fact (let’s say, for the purposes of political analogy, that it’s the Washington Redskins). The one team upon which you hang everything and expect to perform for you, Joe Six-Pack, because you are their biggest fan. And now you can elect the next General Manager of this team.
Thing is, in the 2008-2009 season, the Skins have three — maybe even four — key players, real game-changers, the stars, the guys without whom the Skins simply cannot function, that are thinking of retiring. And let’s just say that whomever you elect as General Manager is the only one that can pick replacements for these guys that make your team the functioning whole that it is. Yes, his picks are subject to a board of directors, maybe a few of his picks get shitcanned in the early rounds, but it’s this guy or gal’s judgment, his intimate knowledge of the sport and its history, that count. Now you have two choices for General Manager.
The first choice is literally a football scholar. He went to a school where all they do is read books about football, talk about football, write papers about specific plays, analyze and dissect the very rules of football, and then went on to become the president of the Football School’s Gridiron Review, the country’s most prestigious journal of everything having to do with football. After graduating at the top of his class from this institute of Football Knowledge, he went on to teach other students of football and its many rules and regulations. For twelve years. This General Manager would pick players based on their statistical records, on their game play, on their attitude towards other players and towards the Rules of the Game. He’d base his draft picks on temperament and reason, using all the many years of studying the game of football to place the best available players in the game for the good of the whole team, and all its fans.
Your second choice knows absolutely nothing about football. She has never herself played football or studied it in any way. She can’t tell you a single play or describe the scoring system. She’s watched a few games, can tell you one or two of the team names, but that’s it; she simply has no interest in or comprehension of the sport of football. She’d make her picks to staff your favorite team based on the color of their jerseys, and their opinions about God and whatnot. And once she’s made her picks, those players – for better or worse – will be stuck playing for the Skins for possibly the next 20-30 years. But she doesn’t care, because football means nothing to her, really; she’s just blessed that you chose her.
No football fan would do something so mind-bogglingly assheaded. No football fan could comprehend putting a rookie asshole in charge of their most cherished team. Well you know what, Joe Six-Pack? The United States is my team, you stupid fuckhole; the Constitution is my playbook and the Supreme Court is my RFK Stadium. I need my players to know what the fuck they’re doing, and I need their manager and all their coaches to run the best plays, all the time, for everyone, not just Skins fans. Why on earth wouldn’t your choice for Vice President be at least as informed as your choice for the manager of a football team?
And yes, I understand that Obama is running against McCain, not Palin, but I’m basically assuming that McCain strokes out or dies shortly after nuking Iran. You have to assume the worst in government. Obviously.