Power

Salon has posted a chilling story that demonstrates this admnistration's committment to simply doing away with the concepts of accountability, transparency, and checks & balances. There's a reason that progressives refer to Bush as George II, opposed Alito in part for his support of the "unitary executive" theory, and are ready to fight with everything we've got to regain the leglislative branch this fall. Because if we don't, the nation really will be in the thrall of neo-fascism.

On March 25, 2003, President Bush signedExecutive Order 13292, a hitherto little known document that grants the greatest expansion of the power of the vice president in American history. The order gives the vice president the same ability to classify intelligence as the president. By controlling classification, the vice president can in effect control intelligence and, through that, foreign policy.

Bush operates on the radical notion of the "unitary executive," that the president has inherent and limitless powers in his role as commander in chief, above the system of checks and balances. By his extraordinary order, he elevated Cheney to his level, an acknowledgment that the vice president was already the de facto executive in national security. Never before has any president diminished and divided his power in this manner. Now the unitary executive inherently includes the unitary vice president.

The unprecedented executive order bears the earmarks of Cheney's former counsel and current chief of staff, David Addington. Addington has been the closest assistant to Cheney through three decades, since Cheney served in the House of Representatives in the 1980s. Inside the executive branch, far and wide, Addington acts as Cheney's vicar, bullying and sarcastic, inspiring fear and obedience. Few documents of concern to the vice president, even executive orders, reach the eyes of the president without passing first through Addington's agile hands.

Highly recommended.