THE most important part of last night's VP debate

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There was a moment in last night’s debate that sent a cold shiver down my spine. That moment was when moderator Gwen Ifill asked Sarah Palin whether she agreed with Dick Cheney’s rather extraordinary claim that the Vice President’s office is outside of the Executive Branch (truthfully, Cheney argued that it was outside the Legislative branch too, apparently occupying some nebulous and untouchable fourth branch of government). Wouldn’t you know? That pitbull with lipstick agrees with Cheney.

Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we’ll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.

The mind shudders at the thought. Thankfully, Joe Biden knew exactly how to respond to someone who admires the least popular Vice President in American history (and if you were watching the debates on CNN, you’d know that those dial pollsters loved his response too):

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. [..] The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

See, Palin, that’s real straight talk.

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