[theknife]

in high school civics class, we were taught there were three branches of US government: executive, judicial, & legislative. not so, says the Office of the Vice-President: Dick Cheney feels he is a fourth branch:

The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to thse latter.

this is the VP's office rationale for refusing federal requests for details as to the size and scope of his staff, for inclusion in a federal directory known as the Plum Book. Cheney is running his own operation:

As the Bush administration has dramatically accelerated the classification of information as "top secret" or "confidential," one office is refusing to report on its annual activity in classifying documents: the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001, but Cheney insists he is exempt.

Explaining why the vice president has withheld even a tally of his office's secrecy when offices such as the National Security Council routinely report theirs, a spokeswoman said Cheney is "not under any duty" to provide it.

sort of an extra-Constitutional thing - the super double top-secret office of the Vice President. even other government agencies are routinely stonewalled by the VP's office:

In an extraordinary internal challenge to the unruly Office of the Vice President (OVP), the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) has formally petitioned the Attorney General to direct the OVP to comply with a requirement that executive branch organizations disclose statistics on their classification and declassification activity to ISOO

perhaps the new Congress might want to look into the constitutional role of the VP's office - i know my high school civics teacher would appreciate the update.