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Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel
Biden's big gaffe of the night was on the question about Cheney and the role of the vice-president. He said:
Everyone should understand an absolutely false statement about the Constitution from a lawyer who claims to be a Constitutional law expert? Article I is in fact the only place in the Constitution where the role of the vice-president is mentioned, the only problem here is that Article I is what lays out the role and structure of THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH and establishes only that the VP is the President of the Senate but has no vote except in the case of a tie and establishes that there can be a President pro tempore who is to preside over the Senate when the vice-president is absent.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
Yeah, obviously Biden should have mentioned Article II in a perfect world, but in all honesty, no one on Earth gives a shit about this mistake.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KSig RC
But the whole point of the Article I/II misstep is that Biden did not, in fact, indicate that he knew what the VP did. However, it's an esoteric distinction, so no one on Earth would/should care. It's just irony, really.
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Sure it was a misstep to say that Article I creates the Executive, rather than the Legislative, branch -- although it's a misstep I've heard many times from many knowledgable people. (And I would disagree that Article I is the only place the Constitution mentions the role of the Veep. Article II, section 6, lays out the primary role of the vice-president -- to take on the duties of president if necessary.)
But the point was to refute a claim made by Dick Cheney -- that the vice-president's office is part of the legislative branch. (Or, per some other statements, that the office is part of the executive branch
and the legislative branch, or that it is not part of
either.) Cheney made this claim to explain why his office was not subject to rules signed by Bush on the handling and release of classified documents by executive branch officials and offices. I have yet to see any constitutional scholar, or pretty much anyone outside of Cheney's office, who agrees with Cheney's position. Article I or II, the Veep is in the excecutive branch, pure and simple. That's the point Biden was making and he was right, even if he did refer to Article I when he should have said II.
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