The President and the warm bucket of spit
Ever since Condi Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission turned out not to be such a boon for the Democrats, the wailing from the Left has centered around the other half of the deal that made that happen: Bush and Cheney will appear before the commission on Thursday together. The press and the Democrats have had a field day asking "Why?" What has allowed the fire to burn on this question has been the Administration's lame excuse that "it just makes sense." Perhaps Karl Rove is setting up rope-a-dope #142, but it aggravates me that I know of at least two reasonable, rational, and plausible reasons for this, and no one in the GOP is saying either one of them.
First and foremost, the President and the Vice-President are the only two elected officials of the sitting Administration. That's the way it works in the United States under the Constitution: the top dog and his running mate really only "answer to" all the voters, and only once every four years. Testimony before a congressional committee or a congressionally-created commission has been almost non-existant. (I know only of Gerald Ford, who went to the Hill to explain his pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon - a singular event unto itself.) For what purpose other than chicanery would any body seek the separate testimony of these two men, who by all authority are required to speak with one voice, especially while still serving in office?
The other reason is even more basic. What does the Vice-President have to testify about? The man only has two duties under the Constitution: 1) Cast a deciding vote when the Senate is tied, and more importantly, 2) be prepared to assume office on the death of the President. The former capacity has not been utilized by Mr. Cheney in any matter related to 9/11. The latter would lead to just one question, "Were you prepared to assume the duties of the President if Air Force One was shot down that day?"
When you combine my first answer to the question of why the President and Vice-President should be appearing together with the latter half of my second answer, there's simple no rationale why the two should be appearing separately, beyond the expectation of a successful witch hunt. And we all know that when you hunt witches, there's only one verdict.
UPDATE: At the risk of sounding like someone haughty and French-looking... My lips. Karl Rove's ears.
