What's the Bush administration hiding? Everything

[struggle4progress]

By Robyn Blummer
Tribune Media Services

President Bush has made it a point to bring as much opacity to his administration as possible. To Bush, the public has a right to know . . . very little. His White House is downright allergic to open government.

We saw it with the John Bolton nomination. Bush claimed he wanted his nominee as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to receive an up or down vote in the Senate, but not enough to turn over the State Department documents that would have brought light to some of Bolton’s controversial actions. Had that material been released, the Democrats blocking Bolton’s confirmation promised to let a vote go forward. But Bush would rather snub the Senate and appoint Bolton during a congressional recess than let the public see the truth of Bolton’s record.

No matter where you look, secrecy is the impulse: from the decree by former Attorney General John Ashcroft encouraging denials of records under the Freedom of Information Act by promising that any defensible refusal would be supported by his office; to the president’s executive order overriding parts of the Presidential Records Act, so that records from past administrations can be indefinitely hidden at the behest of past or current presidents and vice presidents. <snip>

Everything’s a secret except, of course, the identity of a covert CIA operative whose husband went off script. <snip>

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=118116&format=html

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Simplifies finding the truth

just check the daily denials.

[struggle4progress]

2. Yep. That's a useful principle. eom