Think Progress has the report of a spirited press conference today with White House spokesperson Dana Perino. Perino was asked about Vice President Cheney's contention his office is not bound by Executive Order 12958, governing national security reporting requirements, because the Office of the Vice President is not part of the Executive Branch as a result of it having "both legislative and executive functions." We'll get to Perino's response, but let's take up this question of the Vice President's legislative responsibilities. What are they? Well, according to Article I Section III of the United States Constitution:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

Cheney the legislator's responsibilities -- the ones that so set him apart from the Executive Branch -- begin and end there. Elsewhere in the Constitution the Vice President is treated as simply second in command to the President and the next in the line of succession, a clear part of the Executive Branch. How many times has Cheney exercised this so-important legislative power?

The information we have comes from the Office of the Secretary of the Senate. Between April 2001 and December 2005, Cheney appeared in the Senate to execute his constitutional authority to break voting ties a grand total of seven times.

Back to Dana Perino's press conference from earlier today. She was asked why exactly why exactly Vice President Cheney felt it appropriate to exempt himself from national security regulations that apply to the executive branch:

I think that while that’s an interesting constitutional discussion about the separation of powers and different branches, between executive branch and legislative branch and different functions, under the role — as his unique role as the vice president of the United States...

And later:

[T]his is an interesting constitutional question that legal scholars can debate — and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of them inside the Beltway — is that the vice president has a unique role in our United States government. He is not only the vice president of the United States but in that role he is also the president of the Senate.

Isn't the constitutional question here pretty much whether or not you accept the U.S. Constitution as the guiding document of this republic?

When Cheney refused to comply with the Information Security Oversight Office of the National Archives' request for information under E.O. 12958, the ISOO asked the Attorney General to resolve whether or not the Vice President's office was subject to the order. Perino was asked about it this morning and said:

PERINO: In the E.O. as well, the ISOO does have the capability to go to the Department of Justice and ask for an opinion, of which they have done.

QUESTION: OK. Was that in January? They still haven’t heard anything.

PERINO: You’ll have to put that question to the Department of Justice.

Indeed, the ISOO asked Alberto Gonzales to clear up the question of the whether or not the Executive Branch's national security reporting requirements apply to Dick Cheney's office. That was January 9, 2007. And they are still waiting to hear back.