Is the Vice President Part of the Legislative Branch?

Keith Olbermann, a political hack rejected by Sportscenter posing as a newsman, proved his stupidity even more the other night in his attacks on Vice President Cheney. Olbermann’s attacks stated that Vice President Cheney was taking a position no one had ever taken before that the Vice President’s office was part of the legislative branch, not the executive branch. Sadly Rep. Ron Emmanuel agreed stating that no one in history has ever thought that. So permit me a minute to correct Keith Olbermann with a small history lesson because, while I think the Vice President is playing dirty pool, I think his office is the head of the legislative branch, and not part of the executive branch.

First, just look at the Constitution prior to amendments. The Vice President is first mentioned in Article 1 Section 3 paragraph 4 and 5, a fact Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley forgot on Olbermann’s show. Here the Constitution is speaking about the Legislative Branch, and specifically the make up of the Senate. The Vice President is the President of the Senate. The President Pro-Tempore serves in the absence of the Vice President or if the Vice President is serving as the President, in other words, if the Vice President becomes the Executive Branch, he is removed from his job over the Legislative Branch. The Vice President is mentioned again Article 2 Section 1 paragraph 1 when it states the Vice President’s term is the same four year term as the President. Now notice the section prior to the amendments. Part of section 1 has been changed because of amendment 12. Originally the Vice President was the person who finished second in the race for the White House, not a person on the same ticket. The Vice President and President were not joined in anyway. They were not thought to be a unit. They were separate. This created problems and led to the 12th Amendment joining them onto a single ballot, but the Senate still retained the right to choose the Vice President in an event of a lack of a majority of electors because the Vice President is the head of the Senate. Note also the President of the Senate reads the electoral votes. That means the Vice President reads the votes. The Constitution refers to the Vice President as the President of the Senate indicating where his job should fall. In the Legislative Branch.

Second, notice that the original Constitution says nothing about what happens when a President dies or is removed from office. We have one blurb about the Vice President not being the President of the Senate if he must "exercise the Office of President of the United States." It is not explained anywhere further. We take for granted today that if a President dies in office that the Vice President becomes the President and finishes the term. That was not placed into the Constitution until the 25th Amendment in 1967. It was assumed because of the political genius of Vice President Tyler, who declared himself to be the President for the rest of Harrison’s term without clear Constitutional precedent. There were people in the House that did not believe that Tyler had that right. They thought the Vice President served as a place holder until a special election for President could be held. Eight people in the Senate and more in the House voted against the idea that the Vice President becomes the President. Tyler helped solidify in our minds the idea that the Vice President belongs to the executive, but it was a controversial thing when Tyler tried to become the chief executive.

Third, the Vice Presidents did not always go on foreign good will missions as they do today, but they actually sat and ran the Senate. John C. Calhoun, Vice President for both Adams (the second one) and Jackson, seems to have enjoyed the job of running the Senate. He allowed personal attacks in speeches by political friends and called down political enemies as being out of order. John Adams (the first one), Vice President for Washington, hated the job because he found it tedious and boring. These men had no executive jobs at all. Their sole job was to run the Senate, and vote there when needed. Even today the Vice President has no official executive job to do. They do not even get to be Commander-in-Chief of the Coast Guard.

Fourth, cabinet positions were also not always assumed to be part of the executive branch. Specifically the Secretary of Treasury reported directly to the House of Representatives since that branch is given control of the pursue strings. The Senate censured President Andrew Jackson when he directed Secretary of Treasury Roger Taney to remove the government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States. The reason was that the Secretary of Treasury did not have authority to do that without Congressional approval. Taney was also a recess appointment, who was then defeated, because the first Secretary of Treasury refused to remove the deposits on account of the fact that he believed Congress had to order him to do it, and not the President.

These are just a few of the facts that are easily discoverable by any decent journalist or Constitutional Law Professor. I do believe the Vice President belongs to the Legislative Branch, and I think the founders viewed his job as in the Legislative area as well. One might could argue that subsequent amendments have changed that, but what one cannot do, is pretend that the claims of Vice President Cheney are ridiculous.