Maryland Conservatarian

Walter Mondale has a piece in Sunday’s Washington Post which adds little to our understanding of the role of the vice-president – even though it purports to outline the change in status of the VP:

“Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive -- until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track.” Walter F. Mondale - Answering to No One - washingtonpost.com

He explains that the VP attains any power only through delegation by the president. He notes that President Bush has so delegated. Somehow our former vice-president finds this nefarious. Other points are just petulant potshots:

“Nor does he exhibit much respect for public opinion, which amounts to indifference toward being held accountable by the people who elected him.”

Well, the people did RE-elect him…unlike some other VP from 27 years ago. But what I key off on was his parting shot:

“…I remain enormously proud of what we did in those four years, especially that we told the truth, obeyed the law and kept the peace.”

Kept the peace? After four years of Jimmy Carter, the world was enjoying an Iraq-Iran war, a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Sandinistas taking over in Nicarauga. And of course there were our own embassy folks in Tehran who spent the final year of the Carter-Mondale presidency in considerably less–than-peaceful conditions. My lasting memory of those difficult times is not the relative peace on earth “kept” by that administration. It remains an ongoing mystery to me how anyone prominently identified with the Carter presidency can feel anything but self-conscious over criticizing any other administration.