Bush keeps secrets from the secret keepers, too.

You remember that executive order that Cheney's office said didn't apply to him, because he wasn't really in the executive branch, since he was also President of the Senate? It's in the news again.

But not just because Cheney conitnues to make that ridiculous claim. No, today it's in the news because Bush is making a claim equally stupid. Possibly even more stupid:

Bush claims oversight exemption too
The White House says the president's own order on classified data does not apply to his office or the vice president's.
By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
June 23, 2007

WASHINGTON — The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.

An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn't specifically say so, Bush's order was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said.

Does anyone else find it extraordinarily dangerous that both the President and the Vice President say they don't have to comply with their own orders regarding the tracking of classification and declassification of information that passes through their hands?

Does anyone else find it extraordinarily suspicious that this was exactly the kind of activity they claimed rendered the whole Plame outing and National Intelligence Estimate leaking a non-issue? It was all "legal" because it had all been declassified -- instantly and on the spot by unilateral decisions of the President and Vice President. Or so they claimed. Of course, there are no records of any particular procedure being followed in those cases. And now there never will be. Because while the order itself says

These directives shall be binding upon the agencies.

and that

"Agency" means any "Executive agency," as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105; any "Military department" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 102; and any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information.

Bush now says it really meant everybody except him and Uncle Dick.

Aren't we basically in a situation in which the safest conduit for funneling classified information to unauthorized recipients is now the Executive Office of the President and Office of the Vice President? Seems backwards, really. You can't monitor our classification and declassification activities, and even if you do, whatever we do is insta-legal.

What would a true Manchurian candidate, running an espionage ring from out of the White House or Old Executive Office Building, create for himself in order to provide cover for his operation? And how would it differ in appearance from this?