Pipelines or Hospitals?

This odd little tale of power crews down in Mississippi being diverted to gasoline pipeline work on the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney is finally getting some notice. But not enough to even merit much of a follow-up even when federal officials came calling yesterday to thank workers for getting the pipeline back up and running. The power company had been concentrating on getting local hospitals online when the call from Washington came down to get power back to the pipeline that serves most of the East Coast. Crews working on substations that supply Stone County Hospital and George County Hospital were sent to work on the Colonial Pipeline instead.

It would be nice to know exactly who made that call and what they said. Cheney's office put the local Mississippi scribe on a Beltway snipe hunt for comment rather than explain what happened and under what authority it acted. I'm not even certain it was wrong to make the call or to stress the need to get the pipeline back up, it just makes me wonder how often a phone call from the Vice President's office is used to get things done.

Comments

[Seamus]

Where does Vice President Cheney get the authority to order anybody, outside of his office staff, to do anything? As I read the constitution, his job is to preside over the Senate and to spend the rest of his workday looking in a mirror and rehearsing the presidential oath of office, in case GWB should choke to death on a Dorito.

[MP]

Sorry to thread-jack, but I'm surprised this murder charge hasn't been much talked about yet.

[gaius marius]

makes me wonder how often a phone call from the Vice President's office is used to get things done.

welcome to imperial government, mr taylor. most things either get done or don't get done based on direction emanating from some white house office or another. congress? paid for through k street. courts? reducing their role. it's a one-branch government, and we might as well admit it.

[John]

It's called the executive branch. Isn't this the same blog that has done its best to join in the "Bush isn't doing enough!!" hysteria? Now, that there is evidence of some of the things that they were doing, it's "welcome to the imperial presidency." I think getting gasoline to the entire East Coast is a pretty important priority and probably more important than getting Bubba his power today rather than next week, which by the way all of Mississippi is now green in power only two weeks after a storm that shut down power to the entire state, but remember the holy rosary of "Bush lied and people died!!" or whatever it is these days. Things come down from higher all the time in any operation whether it is a FEMA one or a DOD one. It's just the way the executive works. I don't know why I bother to respond to this stuff anymore, things are always the result of Bush being an incompetent frat boy, unless of course it's because he is an evil genius. There is an e-mail circulating the internet where a guy says that a leftist who works in his office was giving the usual anti-Bush screed about the hurricane and this guy responded, "If Al Gore had been elected that hurricane would have never hit!" to which the leftist agreed without a hint of irony. Strange times we live in.

[joe]

"I think getting gasoline to the entire East Coast is a pretty important priority and probably more important than getting Bubba his power today rather than next week"

Well, it's not as though the East Coast was completely cut off. But even given that getting the pipeline in operation was an important objective, comparable to getting "Bubba," his hospital, and his town's fire department powered up, who put Dick Cheney in charge of making that decision?

[John]

All of the got done Joe. All of the critical patients were evacuated and the hospitals have backup power. If the hospital has backup power and all of the critical patients have been evacuated, the pipleline is more important. Who put Dick Chaney in charge? They are called elections Joe, we have them in free countries as long as the leftists don't take over and end them. He is the freakin vice President. Again, Bush doesn't do enough except of course when he does do something.

[Phil]

So, John, constitutionally speaking, the office of the Vice-President is in charge of prioritizing local power and infrastructure needs during disasters?

[joe]

"Who put Dick Chaney in charge? They are called elections Joe"

I don't recall seeing Mr. Cheney's name next to a box labelled "Emergency Management/Energy Director."

Maybe he can adopt "Construction Manager in Chief," and send the people repairing the levees to pour Trent Lott a new foundation.

And, btw, John: you don't know dick about the power needs in the region, do you? You're just assuming that all the important sites have electicity. Right?

[gaius marius]

He is the freakin vice President.

which is what many said when caesar marched his legionaries over the rubicon. "he's the freakin' consul."

you'll note, i hope, mr john, that in spite of your latent dictator-worship, that such practice -- even if deemed necessary by some -- isn't lawful in the slightest.

[John]

Actually Joe I do know a lot about the power needs of the region. I work for one of the response agencies. I can tell you there has been a tremendous amount of great work done especially by DOD. None of that matters of course because Bush was involved and he must be taken to task for religous reasons if nothing else.

[John]

Its okay, Joe, I am sorry to question you and Gaius' deeply held religous beliefs.

[John]

No, Joe I am not assuming anything. I sit through lots of meetings suffering through one Power Point after another giving by excruciating detail the state of everything from hospitals to ports to power and everything in between.

[joe]

"I can tell you there has been a tremendous amount of great work done especially by DOD."

Maybe so. Maybe this was the right call, the right disposition of available resources, given the progress that's been made.

But, if so, it sure looks funny that it was a call from the Vice President, and not decisions made from people on the scene, to move people to the pipeline project.

[gaius marius]

deeply held religous beliefs.

it's not even fun arguing with someone so dim and defensive.

[Rhywun]

There is an e-mail circulating the internet...

I just got one from Nigeria wanting me to share in the prince's wealth - I can't wait!

[Cynical]

Fuck the east coast. Where were they when the west coast was dealing with manufactured rolling black outs? Why didn't Cheney call for all hands to get all power houses back on full operating output?

Oh yeah, they were busy meeting with him on his fucking energy task force!

[thoreau]

I gotta say, of all the things to worry about, the VP taking an active role in managing the Executive Branch seems rather minor.

[R C Dean]

So, if I understand the critics, its not so much that someone from the executive branch called to divert resources to a major gas pipeline, which diversion may well have been the right thing to do. Certainly nobody posting here knows any different.

Rather, the sole complaint seems to be that it was the Vice President's office who called. Everything would be hunky dory if some faceless bureaucrat from an alphabet agency had made the call, but because some faceless functionary from the VP's office made the call, obviously some sort of Satanburton malfeasance is in the air.

Does that pretty much sum it up?

[gaius marius]

Everything would be hunky dory if some faceless bureaucrat from an alphabet agency had made the call

everything would be hunky dory, as you say, mr dean, if such projects were administrated according to law and not the whim of a lawless would-be tyrant.

that is the point of living under a lawful compact, isn't it? or do you feel that cheney should be free to ignore the law whenever he (or perhaps you?) deem the potential results to be "good"? that certainly seems to be the modus operandi of the burgeoning imperial presidency, which seems to me to have become a dictatorship in all but name.

[katie]

Andrew Sullivan links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards drawing the wrong conclusions from having observed our media.
The mismanagement and the mishandling of the acute psychological problems brought about by Hurricane Katrina clearly showed that others can, at any given time, create a devastated war-zone in any part of the U.S.?, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, the official spokesman of the IRGC, said.

I suspect the pipeline is absolutely critical to our economy and our national security. From the White House on 09/01: We're also working with energy companies to repair and reactivate major refineries and pipelines. The good folks must understand that major refineries have been shut down, which means it's going to be hard to get gasoline to some markets. We're working to help these pipelines get up and running. Pipelines carry refined product. And so we're working with the majors -- major oil companies to get the -- with Colonial Pipeline so they can carry the products of the major oil companies, the refined products. Right now, the Colonial Pipeline, which is a major pipeline serving the East Coast, is back in operation, but only at 50 percent capacity. We anticipate that as the days go by, more and more of that capacity will be restored. Other major pipelines are coming back online. But as I said, we're going to have a temporary disruption of gasoline product. Another challenge we face is that the downed pipelines are causing the need to transport gasoline to needed markets by ship. Under current law, shipping between American ports can only take place on American ships, and there are currently not enough American ships to move the oil and gasoline to where it's needed. So today I've instructed Secretary of Homeland Security Chairman Chertoff to temporarily waive this requirement, so foreign ships can also help distribute oil and gasoline to where it's needed.

I apologize for the length of this comment but if I were a terrorist, note to self, knock off the Colonial Pipeline and get operatives on foreign ships likely to be tasked with shoring up distribution. I don't understand why the Dept. of Homeland Security doesn't have a team in place to bring power back on quietly.

[Seamus]

"Rather, the sole complaint seems to be that it was the Vice President's office who called. Everything would be hunky dory if some faceless bureaucrat from an alphabet agency had made the call, but because some faceless functionary from the VP's office made the call, obviously some sort of Satanburton malfeasance is in the air."

If the faceless bureaucrat was in an agency that had the statutory power to make the order, and if the bureaucrat had properly delegated authority from the head of the agency, yes, that would be proper.

"Who put Dick Chaney in charge? They are called elections Joe, we have them in free countries as long as the leftists don't take over and end them. He is the freakin vice President."

That's right, and the job of the freakin Vice President, last time I read the Constitution, was to preside over the Senate and be ready to assume the presidency (or the acting presidency, in the case of presidential disability).

A little historical note: Before LBJ became VP, the only physical office the VP had was his office in the Capitol, as President of the Senate. But JFK wanted to give the VP more of a role than the VP traditionally had (as back when John Nance Garner said the office wasn't "worth a pitcher of warm piss"). That meant that LBJ and his successors in the No. 2 job got offices in the Executive Office Building, and came to be regarded as a kind of super-advisor to the President. But that's all just a matter of how the President gets his advice, and how he is represented outside the White House for things like speeches, interviews, and funerals of foreign heads of state. The VP doesn't have any more inherent authority than the President's private secretary does to command people outside the executive branch -- at least not until he succeeds to the presidency or the acting presidency.

[joe]

"I gotta say, of all the things to worry about, the VP taking an active role in managing the Executive Branch seems rather minor."

Government drones like myself and Vice President Cheney are required to follow conflict of interest laws that forbid not just improper actions, but actions that can create the appearance of impropriety. This second part is mainly there to prevent shitstorms from erupting, as they do around even the most intelligent and appropriate actions, if there is an angle that the drone could be working.

It's important for the government to avoid stirring up shitstorms. And anything that brings together Dick Cheney, petroleum products, and unusual orders outside the established chain of command has "appearance of impropriety" written all over it.

Seriously, Dick, these regs are there to protect you just as much as to protect the public. Even if you didn't do everything wrong, this smells funny.

[Seamus]

"The VP doesn't have any more inherent authority than the President's private secretary does to command people outside the executive branch."

Let me correct that: the VP has less inherent authority to command people outside the executive branch than does the president's private secretary, because when people get a call from the private secretary, who is appointed by and removable by the president, they may reasonably presume that the secretary is speaking for the president. (Whether the President can issue commands to private citizens is another matter, but let's assume for the purpose of argument that Congress has delegated him such authority with regard to electric power and pipelines.) The VP, on the other hand, is elected directly by the people and is not removable by the president; there is nothing stopping him from pulling a John C. Calhoun and going off the president's reservation. That's one reason he traditionally has not been part of the executive chain of command. Giving him any independent authority to issue orders to citizens would violate the principle of the "unitary executive" of which Republicans used to be enamored. (And even the opponents of the unitary executive would be hard-pressed to argue that the VP is the equivalent of an independent agency, such as the FTC or the FCC.)

[bubba]

You guys are all nuts. I saw nothing that indicated Cheney had ordered anybody to do anything. He (or his office) called the power company and pointed out that the pipeline was awfully important.

Now, maybe this was all some sort of energy company back scratching, but the other possibility is that the VP was responding to the concerns of his east coast constitutents and the power company agreed with the recommendation to divert resources.

After all, you all so eloquently point out that the VP doesn't have any authority, so his requests are all the less menacing.

[bubba]

"It was my decision to balance what was most important to people in South Mississippi with this all-of-a-sudden national crisis of not enough gas or diesel fuel," Compton said.

"In the future, the federal government needs to give us guidelines if this is such a national emergency so that I can work that in my plans."

So it's clear that the locals were giving no thought to national priorities. It's quite appropriate for federal officials to represent their federal constituents. Oh, and the DOE did place a call, if that placates those who prefer bureaucracies with more initials.

[Joe]

Joe,

Weren't you the same person who was telling me last week that you didn't give a damn about minor laws possie comatatus and "crossing all the Ts and dotting all the is" when it came to disaster relief? Now, you are so concerned about conflict of interest laws when it comes to powering up what seems to be a very important pipeline. What happened to Bush being wrong for not just getting things done? What happened is that when it comes to criticizing the administration you will grasp onto any straw no matter how thin or contradictory to the last one you grabbed.

[pertinax]

Must have missed the order of the Federal government federalizing the private contractors.
We all can breath easier with local decision makers overriden by hirelings of the office of the VP.
Next the National Guard will have round the clock guards at the substation concerned, so that the national interest in having cheaper oil for the east coast is maintained at all cost.