By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; 1:20 PM
How far will Vice President Cheney go to shield himself and his office from public scrutiny?
Last spring, Cheney asserted that he wasn't subject to executive-branch rules about classified information because he wasn't actually part of the executive branch.
Now his office argues that he and his staff are completely immune from congressional oversight. That's right: Completely immune.
Cheney's latest claim came in a response to a House Judiciary Committee request for vice presidential chief of staff David S. Addington to testify about his central role in developing the administration's torture policies.
Cheney lawyer Kathryn L. Wheelbarger wrote back: "Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by a law what a Vice President communicates in the performance of the Vice President's official duties, or what a Vice President recommends that a President communicate in the President's performance of official duties, and therefore those matters are not within the Committee's power of inquiry."
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/04/29/BL2008042901347.html?hpid=opinionsbox1TPM:Administration Officials to Conyers: Catch Us if You Can
By Paul Kiel - April 29, 2008, 11:17AM
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) knew he was going to get a fight. And he's getting one.
Earlier this month, he scheduled a hearing for next week on the administration's authorization of torture, and along with John Yoo, has invited former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former CIA Director George Tenet, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Chief of Staff to the Vice President David Addington, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin.
Yesterday Conyers released some of the correspondence he's been having with lawyers for Addington, Yoo, and Ashcroft. As expected, none of them want to testify, and they're not short on reasons.
Both Yoo and Ashcroft say that they have not been authorized by the Department of Justice to discuss the context of the key torture memos, internal discussions about them, and the like. And both say that they are the subject of lawsuits, and so it would be "inappropriate" to testify.
more:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/administration_officials_to_co.php