After Congressional Democrats called his bluff by threatening to withhold funding from his office, the White House was forced to roll back their rhetoric, claiming “that the rationale had been the view of the vice president’s lawyers, not Cheney himself.”
But in an interview with CBS News’ Mark Knoller today, Cheney refused to say he was a member of the executive branch:
Mark Knoller: Are you part of the executive branch, sir? More at Think Progress