Rahm Emanuel Reads This Blog

Yesterday I said that Rep. Emanuel is just the kind of asshole who should back up his tough talk about Fourthbranch Cheney with action, and actually submit legislation cutting funding for the Vice President's office since it isn't part of the executive branch.

And today...

Washington, D.C. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel issued the following statement regarding his amendment to cut funding for the Office of the Vice President from the bill that funds the executive branch. The legislation -- the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill -- will be considered on the floor of the House of Representatives next week.

"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments. I have worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue to pursue this measure in the coming days."

Hilarious. I think it'll pass the House and might even get a few anti-Cheney Republicans, too.

Meanwhile, apparently the law isn't supposed to apply to Cheney or Bush:

The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is exempt from a presidential order requiring government agencies that handle classified national security information to submit to oversight by an independent federal watchdog.

The executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 covers all government agencies that are part of the executive branch and, although it doesn't specifically say so, was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said.

I like when new laws are made up within executive orders and the justification is essentially "Oh, I meant to do that." Under this standard, the 2nd amendment INCLUDES the right to use handguns to kill anyone Chinese, I mean, it's not actually written in there, but that was the intent. What originalists they are.