Cloak of Invincibility

It's really breathtaking what the Vice President is asserting in the Valerie Plame civil trial. This is what he'll be spending the rest of his natural-born life saying in the courts. It's in line with the wackiest of the unitary executive branch theories. Just pay attention to the argument here:

Attorneys for Vice President Cheney and top White House officials told a federal judge yesterday that they cannot be held liable for anything they disclosed to reporters about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame or her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

The officials, who include senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, argued that the judge should dismiss a lawsuit filed by the couple that stemmed from the disclosure of Plame's identity to the media [...]

The lawyers said any conversations Cheney and the officials had about Plame with one another or with reporters were part of their normal duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate "policy dispute." Cheney's attorney went further, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit.

If the President does it, that means it's not illegal has apparently migrated to the Vice President as well. Mighty convenient.

That's what the Vice President is arguing. He's saying that nothing he can do, in this case or any case, will open him up to prosecution, whatsoever. That's the logical reading of his argument. Even the judge caught on to the real insanity of it all.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates asked: "So you're arguing there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- these officials could have said to reporters that would have been beyond the scope of their employment," whether the statements were true or false?

"That's true, Your Honor. Mr. Wilson was criticizing government policy," said Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil division. "These officials were responding to that criticism."

The Vice President is asserting the right to deliver classified information to anyone he wants, information that can ruin careers, put CIA agents in the field at risk and punish enemies by selective disclosure. And that's just if you read this narrowly. More broadly, he's saying that he has the unique right, by being the guy who, until his tenure, had the job of laying wreaths at state funerals, to commit any violation of the law at any time, during or after his elected role as Vice President, without ever being held accountable by the courts. At all.

Wow. That this isn't headlining the news every day for a year is stunning to me. Actually it isn't, as we don't really have anymore what you would call "news." If I were the Democrats, however, I would put out a press release a day showing what Dick Cheney has decided he's allowed to do that day. "Vice President Asserts Right to Carjack." "Vice President Says He Can Beat Up Woman In An Alley." "Vice President Allowed to Burn Crosses On Church Lawn."