Sisyphus Shrugged - the executive root

Mr. Cheney's lawyers appear to be a little unclear about the structure of the federal government

The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Vice President Cheney explain himself. Is his office part of the executive branch? Part of the legislative branch? Or is Cheney suggesting that as far as federal rules are concerned, his office essentially doesn't exist?
The issue at hand is Cheney's insistence that his office is exempt from an executive order issued by President Bush in 2003 requiring all federal agencies or "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" to report annually on its activities regarding the classification, safeguarding and declassification of national security information.
As Mark Silva reported in the Chicago Tribune in April 2006, Cheney's office maintains that its dual executive and legislative duties (the vice president also serves as president of the Senate) make it uniquely exempt from such rules.

I'm here to help, or rather, the White House website is

Executive Branch
The power of the executive branch is vested in the President, who also serves as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The President appoints the Cabinet and oversees the various agencies and departments of the federal government.
In order for a person to become President, he or she must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years of age, and have resided in the United States for at least 14 years. Once elected, the President serves a term of four years and may be re-elected only once.
To learn more about the Executive Branch please visit the President's Cabinet page on the White House web site.

and there we find

President Bush's Cabinet

The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. One of the principal purposes of the Cabinet (drawn from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution) is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of their respective offices.

The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments-the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Under President George W. Bush, Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Office of Management and Budget; the Director, National Drug Control Policy; and the U.S. Trade Representative.

along with a nice picture

The Vice President
Richard B. Cheney
www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/

Richard B. Cheney

I usually don't hotlink, but I figure I'm paying for the bandwidth.

So, he may be a floor wax, but he's also a dessert topping, and he's spent the past six years leaping atop the nearest ice cream when it suited him

The conflict between the GAO and the vice president's office appeared headed to a court showdown until the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Walker issued a statement in late September that the dispute remained unresolved, but that "given our current national focus on combating terrorism and enhancing homeland security, this matter is not a current priority." On January 27, 2002, Vice President Cheney declared that the administration was steadfast in its refusal to provide even the most basic information about the meetings because of an important principle involved: that to do so would contribute to a further withering away of traditional presidential prerogatives. The conservative group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Cheney task force to try to compel public disclosure of information about the names of persons who had met with the task force. The liberal National Resources Defense Council also initiated a lawsuit to get access to administration information on the development of energy policy. On January 30, 2002, the GAO announced its intention to initiate a lawsuit to force Vice President Cheney to reveal the names of the participants in the task force meetings and to give other details about the meetings.

At this writing, this controversy has not resulted in a direct presidential claim of privilege. Nonetheless, in his August 2 letter to the Congress, Vice President Cheney asserted that to provide the information requested by GAO would interfere with the constitutional duties of the executive branch by undermining the confidentiality of internal deliberations.

Live by the whipped cream and sprinkles, die by the whipped cream and sprinkles.