Cheney: VP should be the President's chief of staff...everything should run through his office.

[Hart2008]

Excerpted From "Angler: A Strong Push From Backstage"

As President Gerald R. Ford's chief of staff in the 1970s, Cheney saw firsthand how White House policies got shaped -- and how a vice president such as Nelson Rockefeller could become so marginalized as to be dumped from the ticket. Former Army secretary John O. Marsh Jr. said Cheney knew that he needed to control the process by which the president makes choices to ride "the rushing river of power" that winds through the West Wing to the Oval Office.

"Dick's major concern, one of them was, and I agree, that there needs to be a greater and more effective role for the vice president," Marsh, a longtime Cheney friend, said in an interview. "He holds the view, as do I, that the vice president should be the chief of staff in effect, that everything should run through his office.

In Bush, Cheney found the perfect partner. The president's willingness to delegate left plenty of room for his more detail-oriented vice president."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/a_strong_push_from_back_stage/index.html

They should get this John O. Marsh Jr. before the House Judiciary committee and investigate Cheney regarding the impeachment articles. Kind of hard to say the VP is not in the executive branch of government when the VP is acting as the President's chief of staff.

[soothsayer]

1. I actually agree with this. A VP should have SOMETHING to do.

[Deep13]

2. He seems to think that the VP is like the prime minister...

...and the POTUS is a ceremonial office similar to a constitutional monarch or some countries that have ceremonial presidents.

I suggest he go back to the Constitution and read Article II again. The founders rejected that approach. The POTUS is the top minister and there is no ceremonial office.

[Warpy]

3. Uh, DICK, the president HAS a chief of staff

and you're not it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. If the VP gets marginalized, it is the VP's fault

The Founders made the Vice President the President of the Senate for a reason: to shape the federal government through legislative rather than executive means. Remember, the VP originally was the first runner-up in the race for President and presumably the President's chief rival. By putting both men into positions of power, the Founders intended to keep both happy and to provide a check on the power of the other. If a Vice President refuses to excercise this power, it is his own fault.