Details the myriad illegal, immoral, and unethical activities of Dick Cheney when CEO of Halliburton, his obstruction of justice, and lies to the American public since his appointment as Vice President. For information on an equally corrupt politician, see link to Tom DeLay-Corporate Whore. Be sure to visit our cavernous vault of archives.

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Energy Policy: Cheney's big secret

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

An appellate court has settled the question of the letter of the law as it applies to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force disclosures. But that does not relieve the Bush administration of the obligation to respect the spirit of transparency in the way it forms public policy.

Tuesday, the court unanimously rejected the proposition that anyone but administration officials -- not energy industry representatives -- "had a right to vote on committee matters or exercise a veto over committee proposals" during the task force's meetings in 2001. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, had argued that those industry officials had effectively become members of the task force.

An attempt last year to get the U.S. Supreme Court to order the Bush administration to detail relationships with energy company officials -- including infamous Enron Corp. Chief Executive Ken Lay -- was also rejected. The high court cited a "paramount necessity of protecting the executive branch from vexatious litigation." Oh, those activist judges again.

So now, valiantly defended against any vexatious litigation, the Bush administration ought to come clean anyway, at least disclosing the names of those with whom the task force met, so that citizens and energy consumers can draw their own conclusions about how balanced was the administration's pursuit of its energy policy.