Friday, December 02, 2005

Cheney's Travelgate

The Center for Public Integrity reports that the Office of the Vice President is behaving differently than the rest of the White House with regards to travel, even differently from the President.

Cheney and his staff, like many in the government, travel to conferences, think tanks, trade organizations, etc. Often the organization covers all the travel expenses as reimbursements to the government. Under law, the government must disclose where they went, what it cost and who paid. But we all know how much Cheney loves secrecy. So, rather than disclose what trips they take, they don't accept the reimbursement and we, the taxpayers, foot the bill.

But it goes further than that. "In [2002] letters to the Office of Government Ethics, David Addington [(then VP counsel, now Chief of Staff)] writes that the Office of the Vice President is not classified as an agency of the executive branch and is therefore not required to issue reports on travel, lodging and related expenses funded by non-federal sources. The letters go on to say that neither the vice president nor his staff had accepted any non-federal payments for travel during the period, and that the office is making that limited disclosure as 'a matter of comity.'"

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C. says "The vice president’s refusal to provide this information, particularly when every other office in the White House voluntarily discloses its travel, suggests that he may be hiding something.”

Or maybe Cheney really is a Sith Lord.

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