The Office of Vice President

Over the course of my lifetime, the prestige of the office of vice president has increased considerably. The first VP I can remember is Dan Quayle, one of the most ridiculed men in politics of his era. In retrospect, most of Quayle's gaffes seem relatively slight; misspelling "potato" seems positively wholesome compared to some of the actions other politicians of note have gotten into trouble for in recent years. Still, Quayle was a weak vice president who clearly played second fiddle to his president, George H. W. Bush. At the other extreme stands Dick Cheney, who has been a serious political force in Washington through two terms as vice president. Indeed, some consider him to be in practice even more powerful than the president, a claim which I will leave to the historians to investigate.

Which of our living models for vice president, Quayle or Cheney, actually fits the office better? The Constitution allots relatively little power to the position, which is necessary primarily to ensure that the void in the power structure created by the president's death or incapacitation can be quickly filled. An acting vice president's most important duty is to serve as President of the Senate, but it seems to be relatively unusual for the vice president to actually attend Senate meetings unless a vote is expected to be very close and perhaps might require the vice president's tie-breaking vote. Given that the vice president needs to be in a position to assume the presidency at any time, I think it is unwise for any vice president to take on any extra duties of importance for those duties may have to be pushed aside at any moment. Thus, it makes sense to me that the office of vice president should be of rather limited importance in and of itself. While some may justly argue about whether Quayle was ever fit to be president (and that is the most vital qualification for any vice president), I nonetheless think he was a "better" vice president than Cheney is simply because Quayle fulfilled his role without usurping presidential power or prestige. Cheney is more useful to the president than Quayle was, perhaps, but the power vacuum created by the death of either Cheney or George W. Bush might be quite considerable.