People Who Have Never Read the Constitution Shouldn't Be Charged with Defending It
Part of the presidential oath of office requires the inductee to defend and uphold the Constitution. Common sense dictates that this includes the president not having cabinet members who attempt to subvert the law of the land.
Dick Cheney has maintained that he is not part of the executive branch of our government because the vice presidency is essentially an office of the legislative. Curiously, the Constitution appears to disagree with his radical notion of the structure of American government:
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it? The office of the vice president is, without question, in the executive branch and has been since the very beginning.
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector...
In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President...
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them...
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."— from US Constitution, Article II, Section I
Cheney has shown himself to be opposed to the very substance of the governmental principles upon which the USA was founded. As part of his oath of office, it is incumbent upon Bush to dismiss Cheney without delay. If he does not do so, he has failed to uphold his oath and should therefore himself be removed from office, along with the vice president who, in light of his anti-Constitutional views of government, is unfit to serve in any capacity whatsoever. What he's done is no less grievous than would have been an insistence that those who criticize him be publicly hung as a warning to others.
How far have we fallen from the ideal of representative government in this country when we stoop to electing leaders who have either never read or who callously disregard the Constitution? How much worse is it when the people and the Congress allow blatant oath breakers to continue serving when such willful ignorance and/or malice becomes so screamingly obvious?
We're in big trouble. For all their blather about originalism and strict adherence to the spirit of the Constitution, people like Bush, Cheney and Gonzalez are nothing less than imperialist radicals who are attempting to undermine every freedom and subvert government entirely. We should not be forced to wait for another election; the damage done already is far worse than ever should have been tolerated. These traitors to the people should be impeached, removed and exiled to a country with a history more befitting their view of proper government. I hear Bush is very popular in Albania; perhaps he could go there and stage a new coup.
