Dick Cheney: A Law Unto Himself

Most legal scholars might take issue with this, but the Vice President insists that he has the power to declassify government secrets at will (depending on how it suits his political needs at the time). This assertion will likely be crucial to the countering the Plamegate prosecution, because if Cheney can insist that any information passed to reporters had been personally declassified beforehand, then it will become harder to prosecute on national security violations.

Yes, that's BushCo- Abusing national security matters for personal gain since 2001.

AP: Cheney Says He Can Declassify Secrets

Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on Iraq to reporters...

Byron York has an excellent column at National Review exploring this matter. The Executive Order from which Cheney's claims to this odd authority originates is Executive Order 13292, issued by President Bush on March 25, 2003. While such power was previously only held by the President, this Order also grants it to the Vice President. The Order only specifically mentions the power to classify, but Cheney appears to be using a broader interpretation of it to grant the power to declassify as well. Pretty serious, and scary, stuff.

While York doesn't specifically address it, the timing of this Executive Order is the key to this story. The Order was signed by Bush right around the time the war began (and as their WMD case began to crumble almost immediately). Then, a few months later, after Wilson's criticism goes public with his NY Times article, administration officials leak the Plame identity to reporters. No doubt the White House wanted to give itself the tools necessary to deal with the fallout from that. As Andrew Sullivan notes, "the circumstantial evidence seems pretty clear to me that the president gave the vice-president constitutional authority to smear Joseph Wilson. It also seems to me that this is a big deal."

Well, no disagreement there.

The Washington Note's Steve Clemons also tackles this issue:
Can Cheney be His Own Declassification Machine?

The question for the media- Will this get the attention you gave the Whittington matter? I'm skeptical.

[PS- This headline says it all- Cheney Mishap Takes Focus Off CIA Leak]