In his effort to expand the powers of vice presidency to dangerous levels, Dick Cheney has met regularly with congressional Republicans. The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that the new Congress “will reassert its constitutional independence from the White House by barring the vice president from joining in internal Senate deliberations.” Mike Allen reports that Vice President-elect Biden has readily agreed to limit his intervention in Congress:
The paper says that when [Senate Majority Leader] Reid was asked whether Biden will be allowed to attend Senate Democratic caucus meetings, Reid said: “Absolutely not.”
Elizabeth Alexander, spokesperson for the Vice President-elect, e-mailed in response: “Vice President-elect Biden had no intention of continuing the practice started by Vice President Cheneyof regularly attending internal legislative branch meetings — he firmly believes in restoring the Office of the Vice President to its historical role. He and Senator Reid see eye to eye on this.”
At the October vice presidential debate in St. Louis, Biden said, “Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history.”
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