Dick Cheney

Another secre­tive power-grab by the Bush admin­is­tra­tion is com­ing to light:

The Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agency with­held infor­ma­tion about a secret coun­tert­er­ror­ism pro­gram from Con­gress for eight years on direct orders from for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Dick Cheney, the agency’s direc­tor, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Sen­ate and House intel­li­gence com­mit­tees, two peo­ple with direct knowl­edge of the mat­ter said Saturday.

By this point, it should sur­prise no one that the admin­is­tra­tion acted in such a man­ner. But I must make one point: All depart­ments of the exec­u­tive branch report to the pres­i­dent, not the vice pres­i­dent. So how could Cheney issue such an order?