David Kurtz suggested over the weekend that it’s “time to shine some light” on the Office of the Vice President. TPM Muckraker seems to have taken it as a direct challenge. Step one: figure out who works for Dick Cheney. They may be public employees, being paid by the public treasury, but finding out who they are isn’t nearly as easy one might assume.
We called Leadership Directories, Inc., a private company which publishes expensive telephone books listing federal officials. OVP routinely shares information on roughly 30 employees, they told us. Of course, that’s likely less than half the number of staffers in his office: in the January issue of the Washington Monthly, Laura Rozen estimates Cheney’s staff size to be 88, plus various experts assigned temporary duty to OVP by their federal agencies. (The largest concentration of staff in a single area is likely to be in Cheney’s national security staff: in 2005, Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf asserted (reg. req.) that Cheney has the largest national security staff of any vice president ever, with guesses ranging from 15 to 35 at any given time.)
Cheney’s office refuses to give any details to reporters. His office is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, so any such request would be futile. What’s more, Cheney appears to have exempted his office from having to disclose the number of appointed officials in his ranks: all other agencies have to release theirs for a government directory known as the “Plum Book.”
Published every four years, the volume is supposed to list every position in the federal government that is assigned to a political appointee. Cheney’s list was a more dangerous secret than even the CIA’s. In the most recent edition published in 2004, the book shows the CIA as having eight such spots; it shows none for the vice president’s office.
Needless to say, no other Vice President has ever operated this way (and if I only had a nickel for every time I’ve seen that sentence the last six years…).
Laura Rozen, working on a piece for the Washington Monthly, asked about a staffer who had been rumored to have joined the VP’s staff. A Cheney’s press secretary told her, “If we have a personnel announcement we’d like you to know about, we’ll tell you.”
We called Leadership Directories, Inc., a private company which publishes expensive telephone books listing federal officials. OVP routinely shares information on roughly 30 employees, they told us. Of course, that’s likely less than half the number of staffers in his office: in the January issue of the Washington Monthly, Laura Rozen estimates Cheney’s staff size to be 88, plus various experts assigned temporary duty to OVP by their federal agencies. (The largest concentration of staff in a single area is likely to be in Cheney’s national security staff: in 2005, Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf asserted (reg. req.) that Cheney has the largest national security staff of any vice president ever, with guesses ranging from 15 to 35 at any given time.)
Cheney’s office refuses to give any details to reporters. His office is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, so any such request would be futile. What’s more, Cheney appears to have exempted his office from having to disclose the number of appointed officials in his ranks: all other agencies have to release theirs for a government directory known as the “Plum Book.”
Published every four years, the volume is supposed to list every position in the federal government that is assigned to a political appointee. Cheney’s list was a more dangerous secret than even the CIA’s. In the most recent edition published in 2004, the book shows the CIA as having eight such spots; it shows none for the vice president’s office.
Needless to say, no other Vice President has ever operated this way (and if I only had a nickel for every time I’ve seen that sentence the last six years…).
Laura Rozen, working on a piece for the Washington Monthly, asked about a staffer who had been rumored to have joined the VP’s staff. A Cheney’s press secretary told her, “If we have a personnel announcement we’d like you to know about, we’ll tell you.”
Here is the four page document.
2 comments:
escerpt:
Needless to say, no other Vice President has ever operated this way (and if I only had a nickel for every time I’ve seen that sentence the last six years…).
Yes, no other Vice President has run the country behind a puppet President before. All we can hope for is more and more is uncovered on what has really been going on. And hopefully the war mongers, nascar fans, suburban soccer moms, confederate flag flying folks, etc will wake up to it all and vote responsibly next election. (of course the WASP CEOs, CFOs etc. love this type of administration) ok, I'm a WASP so I can say this.
Unbleievable, SPB! I wonder if they changed all of the phone number snow?
Ambien Cheney is the sneakiest crook out there.
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