Biden to limit role of vice president

[firedupdem]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16261.html

snip
Dialing back his predecessor’s expansive view of the office, Vice President-elect Joe Biden plans on “restoring the Office of the Vice President to its historical role” as adviser to the president and tie-breaker in the Senate, an aide to Biden said Saturday.

The declaration results from an attention-getting article coming from the Las Vegas Sun, which is reporting Sunday in a story by Washington Bureau reporter Lisa Mascaro that the new Congress “will reassert its constitutional independence from the White House by barring the vice president from joining in internal Senate deliberations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in an interview with the Sun.”

“The move is intended to restore checks and balances to a system that tilted heavily toward the White House in the Bush presidency,” Mascaro writes. “By giving Vice President Dick Cheney regular access to Senate Republican caucuses, at times with White House advisers in tow, party unity became more important to many Republicans than upholding their responsibilities to provide legislative oversight of the executive, experts say.”

****Adults are returning to the White House!*******

[silverweb]

1. Good for Joe.

And good for the Democrats.

Now they just need to codify those limits and the separation of powers into loophole-free law for once and for all.

No more abuse of powers!

[firedupdem]

2. Just reading this stuff reminds me of how much these fuckers abused

the offices for the last eight years! I'll be so happy to see them all go! What a bunch of thugs!

[cyclezealot]

3. Joe is talented.

We want no more Dick CHeney's . But, with his talent, he could be at least another AL Gore...

[firedupdem]

4. No more crooks and criminal minded people running the show! n/t

[Jennicut]

5. Yay for the Constitution! Joe knows that the VP role needs to be reigned back in

unlike Sarah Palin who thought she could preside over the senate and control it and of course Darth Cheney and his abuse of powers.

[firedupdem]

7. Yeah..

he's not going to "get in there and get some good policies passed, you betcha!"

[Debi]

6. I love Joe Biden

Can't wait for the Obama/Biden Administration to take over!

[cooolandrew]

8. This speaks very well for Biden if all we can do is get back to playing by the rules this is a huge>

success. I mean I'd of expected Biden to do this all the same, but it's very positive to make a clear declaration that democracy is making a strong comeback. Once government functions it functions for everyone. This is a good sign of heading on the road back and is a great indicator of the Obama administrations direction.

[MsLeopard]

9. But will they also hold accountable

those who committed a multitude of crimes while they warped and distorted the "traditional role" of the office? In other words, will Cheney and Bush be frog marched to the courts and made to answer for their crimes against the Constitution? How about the Hague? They need to be tried for war crimes too. It's the only way to let the world know we will not look the other way, as we historically have.

I'm please Joe is talking the talk, but I want to see some walk too.

[Cha]

10. It's more than just "Adults returning"... the Cheaters

are leaving and the people who play by the rules are coming in ..just in the nick of time.