The House Judiciary Committee should immediately subpoena David Addington, John Ashcroft, and John Yoo.  These citizens recently advised the Congress through legal counsel that they will not respond to Congress’s invitation to testify about secrecy and torture in the Bush administration.  Thus the Vice President, through his intellectual Cerburus (Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Addington) is thumbing his nose at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and basic democratic values.  As long as he is allowed to do this, former officials such as Ashcroft, Yoo, Harriet Miers and others will avoid their own civic and constitutional responsibilities.  If the House does not act decisively, the repercussions for Congress’s investigative powers may be fundamental and long-lasting.

Dan Froomkin reports in the Washington Post that Vice President Cheney’s counsel Kathryn Wheelbarger recently wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers with three main arguments as to why Addington would not be appearing before the committee:

• Activities of the Vice President are not subject to "regulation" by the Judiciary Committee;
• Addington works for the Vice President, not the President, and the committee is holding hearings about presidential power and presidential activities
• A laundry list of other reasons ranging from attorney-client privilege to "state secrets."

Once again we are faced with a Vice President who has decided to write his own rulebook.  Cheney has claimed, time and again, that he and the staff of his office are not accountable to Congress.  He has hidden behind his post as President of the Senate to avoid testifying to Congress himself. 

The reality is that the vice president’s expressed role is quite limited.  As vice president, his job is to succeed the president in the event of the latter’s death or incapacitation; and as president of the Senate, his job is to settle tie votes and adjudicate in the event of a tie vote in the electoral college.

But, as the Washington Post reported in 2007, Cheney approached the vice presidency based on a "different understanding" with his boss.  Blessed with a pliable and inattentive chief executive, Cheney and his advisers have redefined the non-statutory (read — customary and often arbitrary) powers of the Office of the Vice President beyond any previous conception.  It is time for Congress to undo Richard Cheney’s towering act of imagination before it does the country further harm.  It is time for individuals in the executive branch — in the employ of the American people — to answer to the people’s elected representatives.

Ned Hodgman

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