Biden To Shrink VP Role - Big Time

Vice President-Elect Expected To Operate Much Differently Than His Predecessor

(The Politico)  This story was written by Carol E. Lee.

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Joe Biden is laying plans to significantly shrink the role of the vice presidency in Barack Obama’s White House, according to an official familiar with his thinking.

It’s not just that Biden won’t sit in on Senate Democrats’ weekly caucus meetings - a privilege Republicans afforded outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney. He won’t have an office outside the House floor, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert gave Cheney early on.

Biden will not begin every day with his own intelligence briefing before sitting in on the president’s. He will not always be the last person Obama speaks to before making a decision.

He also will not, as a transition official calls it, operate a "shadow government" within an Obama administration.

One of the few ways he will resemble Cheney is in making clear his future ambitions, or lack thereof: Biden doesn’t expect to run for president after leaving the vice presidency, according to a transition source who was not authorized to speak on the record.

"What he has said previously is that Vice President Cheney had an overly expansive view of the vice president, almost created like a shadow government inside the White House," said the transition official familiar with Biden's role. "Vice President-elect Biden has a very strong view that the vice president’s role is to be an adviser to the president and to be a member of the president’s team, and that’s how he’s going to be in the job."

Cheney made clear he had no intention of succeeding President George W. Bush, which along with his expanded role contributed to his almost unparalleled freedom to act - pushing controversial positions on torture, energy policy and Iraq, knowing he’d be spared facing voters to explain his actions.

But Cheney also had Bush, who gave his more seasoned No. 2 broad sway - with a particular emphasis on foreign policy, where Cheney already had a well-established portfolio as a former defense secretary during the Gulf War.

Obama has shown no inclination to do the same for Biden.

In fact, Biden’s goal of restoring the office to its "traditional role" is something he and Obama agreed on before the Delaware senator was named to the Democratic ticket, the transition official said.

As part of that understanding, Biden is unlikely to have a specific docket of issues.

"He’s been very clear about that from the start that he was not going to take a portfolio in particular areas," the transition official familiar with Biden’s role said. Biden would "be available widely and broadly to offer his advice on whatever hard questions the president was trying to decide."

And even if the vice presidency will have less dominance in the executive office than it has over the past eight years, it’s a change those close to Biden say he supports.

"If Joe were unhappy or feeling left out of this thing, I could tell it just by looking at him," said Biden's close friend Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who added that he was the first person Biden called, after his wife, once Obama asked him to be on the ticket. "My sense is that Joe’s involved in everything and he hasn’t been pigeonholed."

One area that seems to be shaping up as a Biden emphasis is labor policy. Thea Lee, assistant director of public policy at AFL-CIO, says she has gotten strong indications from "various sources" in the Obama transition that Biden will be a point-person for their concerns.

"We certainly have gotten that impression, unofficially," Lee said.

Biden's recent selection of Jared Bernstein, a strong labor advocate, as his chief economic adviser further heartened labor.

But even in the transition, Biden is already showing signs he’ll be different than Cheney.

As vice president-elect, Cheney famously worked multiple cell phones and drafted a list of possible Cabinet appointees - a move that allowed him to salt his allies throughout the Bush administration and expand his reach, particularly at the Pentagon, with Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. So far, Biden has offered Obama advice and recommendations for appointees he’s made so far, but the president-elect’s cabinet is certainly not stocked with Biden allies.

As vice president, Cheney often took advantage of his standing invitation to attend any meeting in any policy area he wanted, with or without the president.

Biden, too, has an open invitation to attend any meeting. But it seems he will take a more selective approach.

"He’ll attend those meetings where he can be helpful in gathering information and in helping to formulate the advice he’ll be giving the president," the transition official said.

As vice president, Cheney received his own intelligence briefing every day, then sat in on President Bush's. During the transition, Obama and Biden sometimes take their intelligence briefings together, and sometimes separately.

Cheney would gather a small legal team of staff from the Justice Department and Pentagon to find ways to expand the White House’s authority. He advocated the adoption of Bush administration policies, such as establishing guidelines for the use of torture and denying foreign terrorism suspects access to courts.

For Biden, his primary legal advice will come from the counsel he appoints in his office.

In short, Biden will be no Dick Cheney - who redefined the office of the vice presidency to gather unprecedented influence and reach. Instead, Biden will serve the role of trusted backup, but someone who won’t be mistaken for a co-president single-handedly crafting and promoting policy.

Cheney came to the vice presidency with decades of executive experience, in both the executive branch and the private sector, having served as White House chief-of-staff for President Gerald Ford, House minority whip, secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush and chairman of the oil services company Halliburton before becoming Bush’s running mate. Biden, on the other hand, was a lawyer in Delaware and then a member of the New Castle County Council before spending 36 years in the U.S. Senate.

Cheney gave top-classified intelligence briefings that the president would typically give. He headed up a group that gave Bush a shortlist for Supreme Court nominees. Cheney joined the weekly luncheon of Bush’s economic team, and he seen as the force behind the Bush tax cuts. He was known to present the president with proposals that would more commonly be the purview of Cabinet members.

Biden recently shared the stage with homeland-security designee Janet Napolitano to be briefed on a report on weapons of mass destruction, a possible hint at how he will operate in office.

One of the more obvious changes in the future vice presidency can be found in Biden and Cheney’s contrasting personalities.

Cheney's public persona is as a man of few words and stern gaze, whose trademark penchant for secrecy seemed perfectly embodied in his oft-visited "undisclosed location" after 9/11.

Biden, by contrast, is more pure politician, backslapping his way through union halls and firehouse chicken-and-dumpling dinners. "If Joe was going to be there and he was going to speak, they knew they were going to be there for a while," said Sam Lathem, president of the Delaware State AFL-CIO. "We always had his cell phone number. We could call him any time we want."

Lathem never got Biden’s new cell phone number. And when Biden stayed out of the limelight for the first few weeks after the election, it raised speculation that he might be a sidelines vice president. More recently Biden has re-emerged, and he is scheduled to give his first interview on December 21 with ABC’s "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

Those close to Biden say he will be a more town hall-style vice president than Cheney. He will do more television shows and press availabilities. He and his wife, Jill, will likely be out promoting their favorite causes, although they will likely still not be part of the Washington social scene.

And in a small shift, Biden has expressed interest in bringing back the Al Gore tradition of hosting an annual Halloween party for the press corps at the vice presidential residence. Those parties did not continue under Cheney.

[kykate1]

*** Cheney didn''t host Halloween parties? Whyever not? He at least would not have to buy a costume. Going just as himself is enough to scare the heck out of any rational thinking person.

[mytoosense]

We will hopefully know better the next time a Vice President openly admitts that they have no plans to run for president.

[mbourn2]

So.... we are to have an unqualified president and an AWAL VP....

[hitoyou11]

An unqualified president along with an unqualified vice presidency. Just what we need, the same as we have. What a joke.

[chicagorail9]

Glad to see the usual Republiturd sympathisers and those who don''t recognize a MANDATE of the electorate when they have been spanked by it - are still posting their silly, venal, and stupid ramblings...showing their home-skooled ignorance that would make their Baptist Mammies so proud if only they could read !


You silly fools had better get used to the idea that Barack Hussein Obama will be sworn in on January 20th, and that Cheney will soon after be indicted and put to trial for TREASON and using his influence to obtain for Halliburton his favours and cash for their shifty dealings in both war zones.

Your silly games are about to crash down about you !

[cbs_bull]

From this news report, we can glimpse how poorly the little Bush has been treated by his baby sitter, the evil Dikc Cheney. Although everyone knows Cheney is a constitution violator, I have little sympathy to Bush.
------------------ (Don''t know why. The ABC News doesn''t allow me to post this on their site.)

[rf35]

"...using his influence to obtain for Halliburton his favours and cash for their shifty dealings in both war zones."
Posted by ChicagoRail9

Yep, every time i took a dump in Iraq, KBR (wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton) made more money.

[enigma505]

The article says of Cheney;..." He advocated the adoption of Bush administration policies, such as establishing guidelines for the use of torture and denying foreign terrorism suspects access to courts."


Does anyone else see how wrong that is? To purposely seek out advice on how to DENY anyone access to the courts, beforehand, is just incredible.


And to deviate from years of our nations policy strictly prohibiting torture, or anything even vaguely resembling it, and seek out ways to get around the letter of the law, and ALLOW torture??


Let that roll off your tounge a few times..."The United States of America ALLOWS torture". It''s just not right. The mere thought flies in the face of our core principals. This nation was founded on our desire to respect human rights, and a right is not something that somebody gives you; it is something that nobody can take away.


Who does this man think he is?



It%u2019s time this nation calls for an investigation into the Bush/Cheney administration''s flagrant violation of the law, remove executive privilege protection from both of them, (and all their cronies they have "blanketed" into the protection) and charge them accordingly. If we, as a nation of laws, allow these actions to go unpunished, we are as guilty as they are.

[citizenusa-2009]

"...using his influence to obtain for Halliburton his favours and cash for their shifty dealings in both war zones."
Posted by ChicagoRail9

Yep, every time i took a dump in Iraq, KBR (wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton) made more money.

Posted by rf35 at 06:17 AM : Dec 16, 2008

Look up Haliburton''s stock prices for 10 years running. BEFORE Bush took office, the stock traded at $15.00 per share. AFTER Uncle d.i.c.k. and Bush declared THE ILLEGAL WAR the price climbed up to $52.00 per share. The week after Obama was elected, the shares began to drop...now to around $16.00, I believe? What does that tell you?

Talk about an OBVIOUS AND PERVESE, Conflict of Interest!!!

[citizenusa-2009]

An unqualified president along with an unqualified vice presidency. Just what we need, the same as we have. What a joke.

Posted by hitoyou11 at 05:43 PM : Dec 15, 2008

What was Cheney "qualified" to do? Tell his puppet to start a war at any cost, that''s what!!

[citizenusa-2009]

"No Virginia, there will not be a Christmas, because our corrupt Administration took daddy''s job away and many people no longer have a chimney (or a house) for Santa to Visit." You must "gut it out", Virginia and be happy for the Bush''s & The Cheney''s..they will be having a FINE Christmas, courtesy of the American people." Amen