Business as Usual — For a Change

If Las Vegas Sun writer Lisa Mascaro is correct, Joe Biden's role as vice president will be quite different from Dick Cheney's.

"Checks and balances" will be back in the next administration, if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has his way.

Biden will still perform his constitutional duties, of course, one of which is to break any ties that come up in the Senate. But, according to Mascaro, Senate Democrats plan to keep him at arm's length.

Mascaro reported that Reid told her Biden will not be allowed to participate in weekly meetings of Democratic senators.

This appears to be part of the backlash against the relationship that existed between the executive and legislative branches during most of George W. Bush's presidency.

The emphasis is on restoring some distance between the two branches. Mascaro wrote, "By giving Vice President Dick Cheney regular access to Senate Republican caucuses, at times with White House advisers in tow, party unity became more important to many Republicans than upholding their responsibilities to provide legislative oversight of the executive, experts say."

Cheney's role has been under intense scrutiny, and Rutgers professor Ross Baker, an authority on Congress, told Mascaro he believes Reid wants to re-assert the Senate's independence. "It's something I think people will puzzle over for a long time — how passive the Republicans were, and how easily led they were by the Republican White House."

Senate Democrats won't physically bar Biden's entry.

"[Biden] can come by once in a while," Reid said, cautioning him to remember that "[h]e's not a senator. He's the vice president."