Reflex

Sharks swim, eat, and make baby sharks; Democrats revel in paranoia and smearmongering about Vice President Dick Cheney.

Here's the latest installment:

The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office's refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the Vice President serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the Executive Branch."

"This is a little bit of a nonissue," Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the President gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."

Democratic critics said Cheney is distorting the plain meaning of the executive order. "Vice President Cheney is expanding the Administration's policy on torture to include tortured logic," said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-IL). "In the end, neither Mr. Cheney or his staff is above the law or the Constitution."

To quote Henry Waxman during his party's shameless defense of Bill Clinton during that administration's avalanche of scandals, "So what?" Is, as the Admiral suggests, Big Time's claim that, as president of the Senate, he's not part of the Executive Branch weak at best? Yes, I'd have to say it is. I still say, "So what?" Heck, I get a kick out of how Cheney cattle-prods Democrats' hair-trigger hysteria where he is concerned. Besides, it's not as if they won't grasp for some other flaccid straw to flaggellate the veep around the head and shoulders. And it's not as if the Bush Administration's popularity can be impacted much more, or really even matters that much in any case this late in its tenure. Indeed, when have they ever cared about it once the 2004 ballots were all in?

But if it makes worrywarts like Ed feel better, let the President amend his Executive Order to exempt Cheney. As the Chief Executive, he does get to do that. Just as he gets to detain illegal combatants during time of war, and surveille terrorist communications, and fire US attorneys for any reason or no reason, and all manner of other things Democrats don't like.

That's what has given this President what charm he possessed. And at this stage of the game, it's about the only charm he's got left.