Our vice president is beginning to resemble a Soviet-era bureaucrat.  His most recent foray into Supreme Court deliberations, as reported by UPI, shows that Mr. Cheney is working in the finest Soviet traditions.

Back in the USSR, public officials used to have a host of official titles that they could use to augment their influence in society.  You could be a member of the Supreme Soviet, Minister of Railroads, chairman of a permanent state committee, and dean of a government-run university.  High-ranking Soviet officials thus built networks of supporters in different institutions.  They appreciated the multiple salaries and they liked the fact that they could switch hats to avoid responsibility, garner personal benefits, or back one or another faction in the Soviet leadership. 

By the 1980s, the Soviet Union was being run into the ground by people wearing too many hats.

Vice President Cheney alternates between two of his official positions – as vice president and as president of the Senate – and avoids scrutiny of one position by claiming he took action while working in his other capacity.  For example, Cheney claimed executive immunity from National Archive officials responsible for cataloguing White House documents, then, when members of Congress objected, he claimed that he wasn’t subject to such claims because he was really acting in his capacity as president of the Senate.  

Now, Cheney has signed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court calling for the court to reject a ban on handguns in the District of Columbia as unconstitutional.  U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement has argued that rescinding the ban would counteract federal gun control efforts.  So Cheney – who seems focused on getting his hands into as many matters of government as possible – signed the brief, essentially, as a member of Congress (in his capacity as president of the Senate).  

So who sits across from President Bush at his weekly lunches with Richard Cheney – the Vice President or the 101st senator from Wyoming?

– Ned Hodgman

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