Scariest Vice President EVER

Steve Clemons has a very disturbing article about a subject that is starting to get some notice on the liberal blogs today.This article takes on the Vice President's contention that he has the authority to selectively declassify information at his choosing and without any other oversight.

The upshot of this contiention is that Cheney authorized I. Lewis Libby, his chief of staff, to leak the name and occupation of Valerie Plame to reporters using a legal means given him by the President in executive order No. 13292. It is interesting to note that the executive order was signed only three months before this information became public.

Steve says that there is no intrinsic authority to declassify information implied in the executive order that is granted to the VP. There is authhority to classify information but not to declassify it.

It is telling that the administration is using this as a new line of defence after originally claiming that no leak of the name even occured. I have a new found loathing for this administration and it's tactics. Cheney is one scary dude.