Palin Strikes Again!!!

I was looking through the Saturday New York Times when an editorial titled “Dick Cheney, Role Model” caught my eye. No way. Who could possibly view Dick Cheney as their role model, after his reign as the most controlling, power-hungry vice president in American history? Sarah Palin, of course! This year’s Republican vice presidential nominee stated at the vice presidential debate that she is “thankful that the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president also, if that vice president so chose to exert it.” Palin said she agreed with Dick Cheney that the vice president should have much more “flexibility” (a.k.a. power) in the Executive branch. But the Constitution does not provide a bit more authority, nor does it allow flexibility in that job. The vice president’s job is to carry out orders given by the president and be the tiebreaking vote in the Senate if one is needed. That’s it. Since Cheney has been vice president, he has worked to bend the rules of his job according to the Constitution, hoping to gain more of a voice and a leadership role in our government. This was a bad move for our nation, especially since Cheney had a large influence on our invasion of Iraq in search of WMDs. Some say Cheney was the cause of the war in Iraq. In any case, there should only be one Commander in Chief, not two. This story made me think about FDR in the 1930’s, bending the rules of the Constitution in order to gain more power for the Executive branch. Roosevelt did this by attempting to “stack” the Supreme Court in his favor by adding six new justices he knew would always vote for his bills. Just as Cheney and Palin attempt to turn around the Constitution in favor of the vice presidential seat, Roosevelt tried to place the judicial branch under the control of the Executive branch, a clear breach of the “checks and balances” system of our government. Although Roosevelt was one of our nation’s greatest presidents, he went against the Constitution by trying to stack the Supreme Court with justices that were all on his side. If Sarah Palin ignores the Constitution as well and over-steps her power as the vice president, we could see a major change in the way our country is run and the decisions the Executive branch makes.