I was so disgusted with the lame excuse offered by our VP – that he is not part of the Executive Branch of government – that I did a little research to see how much of a legislator he is. Vice Presidents have cast 243 votes in the history of our nation (a little more than 1 per year) Cheney has cast 7 votes in just under 7 years so he’s right on track. By contrast, John Kerry was often maligned in 2004 for missing votes on the Senate floor while he was running for president. Although he missed more than 90% of the votes he still cast 16 votes that year. If Cheney is doing 7% of the work of an absentee senator without being part of the Executive branch then he should be working gratis (no charge) because I am convinced that he is not working pro bono (for the public good).
I have never been a big fan of Cheney and I thought he should be replaced years ago, but by now I have long given up hope of that. I was surprised to find A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney today. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really think this plan will happen although it certainly would be a step in the right direction.
Cheney’s claim is indeed lame. However, your contrast of Cheney with Kerry is completely specious because the Vice President acting as President of the Senate is only allowed to vote to break a tie. The fact that his votes in the Senate are nearly equal to those of vice presidents historically only shows that the mathematical probability that a senate vote will tie has remained much the same throughout history. His opportunity to vote is outside of his agency.
Kerry, on the other hand, missed 90% of the votes he could have and should have been voting on.
Apples and Oranges. You should retract the comparison, even if the lameness of his claim still stands.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States#President_of_the_Senate
I absolutely agree that it’s an apples to oranges comparison between Cheney and Kerry. The problem here is that Cheney is claiming that he’s not an orange. I think it’s very fair to demonstrate how much he is not an apple.
I was not making the claim that Cheney is not filling his post in the Senate – though I do list Kerry’s performance as absentee. I chose Kerry because it’s hard to make the point by saying that Cheney cast 100% of the votes he was eligible to cast compared to “Senator X” who only cast 100% of the votes he was eligible to cast. It says a lot more that 100% of Cheneys legislative duty is only a tiny fraction of the duties of a true legislator. I was trying to demonstrate that the Vice President, as President of the Senate, is still in the Executive branch rather than the Legislative branch.