Dueling Veeps: Dick Cheney and Joe Biden Take Shots At Each Other

Vice President-elect Joe Biden, appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolous, took a couple of swipes at his predecessor, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Bush Administration, including saying that he was 'not ruling out' prosecutions of members of the administration involved in torture.

When asked by Stephanopoulos about whether a recent report issued by the Senate Armed Services Committee that said prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other sites were a result of decisions made by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other administration officials meant that those officials should be prosecuted, Biden said, "Questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is -- is something the Justice Department decides." Biden stressed that he and President-elect Obama are "looking forward".

When pressed by Stephanopoulos, Biden offered his assessment of Cheney's performance in office. "[Cheney] has been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and has not been consistent with our Constitution, in my view." Biden went on to say, "His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken."

Meanwhile, on Fox News Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney responded to Biden's campaign criticisms about Cheney's expansion of the vice presidency by implying that each administration redefines the powers of the Vice Presidency. "If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president," Cheney said, "that's obviously his call. I think that President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president. And apparently from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role has I've had during my time."

Biden announced one of his roles today. He will oversee a task force responsible for coming up with ideas that will help build up the middle class. Biden will join four cabinet members and an unspecified number of presidential advisers.