Fourthbranch folds. Or does he?

The Politico reports that Rahm has helped Cheney see the light:

Dems force Cheney flip-flop on secret docs
By: Mike Allen
June 27, 2007 10:36 AM EST

Dick Cheney's office is abandoning a justification for keeping the Vice-President's secret papers out of the hands of the National Archives.

Officials working for Cheney had tried to claim he is separate from the executive branch, but they will no longer pursue that defense, senior administration officials tell The Politico.

The decision follows a threat by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the No. 3 House Democrat, to try to cut off the office’s .8 million in executive-branch funding.

Rrrrraaaah!

But is this what it purports to be?

David S. Addington, Cheney’s chief of staff and counsel, wrote in a three-paragraph letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Tuesday that the executive order on classified national security information does not give the archivists authority over the president or vice president.

Addington said that therefore it "is not necessary in these circumstances to address the subject of any alternative reasoning."

Now look how author Mike Allen treats this:

That amounted to throwing in the towel, according to administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity. The White House has no plans to reassert the argument there is any vice presidential distinction from the executive branch, the officials said.

How exactly is a letter saying the Archivist has no authority to make the OVP comply with this executive order "throwing in the towel?" Did someone in the White House tell Allen that, and so he just wrote it down? Did they just "Healthy Forest" us here? "We're throwing in the towel! Except for the part about the towel. And throwing it."

Here's what Raw Story reported was actually in Addington's letter:

"Constitutional issues in government are generally best left for discussion when unavoidable disputes arise in a specific context instead of in theoretical discussions," Addington adds. "Given that the executive order treats the Vice President like the President rather than like an "agency," it is not necessary in these circumstances to address the subject of any alternative reasoning, based on the law and the history of the legislative functions of the vice presidency and the more modern functions of the vice presidency, to reach the same conclusions that the vice president is not an 'agency' with respect to which ISOO has a role."

What that means: OK, my argument was stupid. But here's the thing: we're not going to comply, and the reason is.... look over there!

Congressman Emanuel needs to continue with his amendment, and funding should be contingent on the OVPs compliance -- retroactively for the years they've skipped -- both with ISOO protocols and with reporting requirements regarding the number and nature of employees in Cheney's office. Because OVP's been skipping out on that, too, on the same stupid neither-fish-nor-fowl basis, namely this:

The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch (see article I, section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code).

So let's make sure we see an actual towel fly, shall we? (And then frisk him for the hidden towels he retains.)

(h/t to dov12348 for spotting the story)