Big Trouble for Dick Cheney

While I hope the CIA can be removed from partisan politics, the bottom line is that on the really big question, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was right and former Vice President Dick Cheney was terribly wrong.

Public reports suggest there may have been some form of assassination program that was run from the Office of the Vice President under Cheney and not disclosed, as required by law, to Congress. It also appears that when CIA Director Leon Panetta found out about this program he terminated it immediately and briefed Congress immediately.

First, we must have more information before making major judgments. If there was an assassination program aimed at bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, that is fine and there is precedent. To the degree any form of assassination program was expanded too widely, or involved assassinations in sovereign nations with their own laws on these matters, the wider this gets, the bigger the problems.

Second, it is inexcusable and very possibly outright illegal for the former vice president, or anyone in any administration, to keep these programs secret from congressional leaders and oversight committees in Congress.

We don’t have monarchs in this country, we have elected officials who operate under the rule of law and take an oath to faithfully execute the laws of the land. No branch of government can unilaterally abrogate the rule of law. No official can unilaterally change the law, or evade the law, or make personal and unilateral decisions about what is legal and what is not, or unilaterally destroy the checks and balances that are essential to the American form of government.

Dick Cheney has caused big trouble.

Dick Cheney is in big trouble.

This is not about “whether we put this behind us” to win votes on the floor of the House or Senate for unrelated legislation.

This is about the rule of law in the United States of America and whether our highest officials honor their oath and their obligation to faithfully execute the laws of the land.

We can and should keep the CIA out of politics while pursuing the truth, based on the law, to ensure our laws are indeed faithfully executed.

No president, no administration, no vice president, of either party, at any time, is above the law. This core American principle must be upheld at all times, now and forever.