ABSTRACT
A LMOS T SINC E IT S CREATION , th e vic e presidenc y Z% ha s been a n eas y and frequen t targe t o f politica l hu -
A* A . mor . Benjamin Frankli n quipped that the vice president should be addressed as "Your Superfluous Excellency. " Mr. Dooley, the invented character of the writer Finley Peter Dunne, described the office as "not a crime exactly. Ye can't be sint to jail f r it, but it' s kind iv a disgrace. It's like writin' anonymous letters." The popular 1930s musical, Of Thee I Sing, featured a fictitious vic e presiden t whos e nam e (whic h n o on e i n th e pla y could remember ) wa s Alexande r Throttlebottom . Vic e Presi - dent Throttlebottom spent most of his time feeding pigeons in a park and trying to find two people willing to serve as references so that he could get a library card.
