White House Response To Crew Suit For Health Care Execs Visitor Records Insufficient (CREW)

[Redhead Irish]

Excerpt:

22 Jul 2009 // Washington, D.C. –

While Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is pleased the White House has taken a step towards delivering the transparency promised in the first days of the administration, the letter sent by White House Counsel Greg Craig in no way satisfies CREW’s June 22nd Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the Secret Service visitor records of 18 health care executives. First, the FOIA requires the administration to release the records themselves, not merely a summary of some information included in the records. The actual visitor records likely would indicate with whom each official met, the administration official who requested clearance for the visitor, the time of the meeting, the duration of the meeting and, in some cases, the purpose of the meeting. In addition, no information was provided regarding any visits to the vice president’s residence. Mr. Craig’s summary is not an adequate substitution for the records themselves.

Second, this letter states the President has used his discretionary authority to release information regarding the visits. There is no indication, however, that this information is complete; there may well be records of other visits not included in this discretionary release. Further, as required by the FOIA, no information was provided to demonstrate the adequacy of the search.

Finally, transparency is not situational. It is not sufficient for the White House to release certain visitor records shortly before a press conference to avoid distraction. In a separate case, CREW recently sued the administration for failing to provide records related to White House visits by coal company executives. In addition, CREW has two other cases for visitor records outstanding: one for visits by Christian conservative leaders to the Bush White House, and another for records related to visits to the Bush White House by lobbyist Stephen Payne. These cases are now before the Court of Appeals, but so far, the Obama administration has echoed the Bush administration’s position that these records are presidential, not federal, despite district court rulings clearly rejecting that legal analysis.

Read more: http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/41564

[stray cat]

1. It was a great answer by Obama - the reporters have been to most of the meetings

and taken pictures.

[DJ13]

8. Then providing the visitor log shouldnt be a problem, right?

[msongs]

2. meet the new boss s ame as the old boss lol change yu can believe in lol nt

[Thrill]

3. If it was the old boss. You wouldn't have got anything. They would have told you to kiss their ass

. And fought it to the Supreme Court.

[katandmoon]

7. "Transparency is not situational" -- Obama promised transparency and he is NOT delivering it.

What the old boss would have done is no longer irrelevant. Obama is not living up to his own promises.

[Thrill]

12. It is when someone tries to compare the two

[debbierlus]

4. Ah, negative recommendations on Obama's lack of transparency by visits by health executives

If Bush did this - this would be on the front page...

Obama just gets a pass

Pathetic.

[Engineer4Obama]

5. Right did you miss the part where he RELEASED their names?

Copy paste of "if bush did this we would be angry" fail.

[SeattleGirl]

6. Probably missed it on purpose.

[katandmoon]

10. Did you miss the part where CREW has sued over THREE different sets of visitor records?

[grantcart]

20. released their names? they were all open to photographers to take pictures

[high density]

9. he releases the names and then they say it's not enough

Well WTF do they want?

[katandmoon]

11. They want him to live up to his campaign promise of transparency on a CONSISTENT basis.

Which Obama is NOT doing.

[ProSense]

14. CREW can do whatever they want to.

Obama has a country to run. CREW has the list. The meetings and the attendees aren't a secret.

I'll wait for CREW's lawsuit to work it's way through the system for all the electronic materials.

[high density]

16. Sorry, it sounds more like "look at us" whining to me.

Nitpicky bullshit.

[Redhead Irish]

15. they want other material, such as video and audio

http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/FOIA%20Request%20(6-22-09).pdf

[high density]

17. Maybe they can wait 30 years for the tapes (if they exist) like we've been doing with Nixon

I think the President can have private conversations as part of his job.

[avaistheone1]

19. That reminds me~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

13. Pathetic is right, but it's not the president I'm disgusted with.

[foginthemorn]

18. yes, it is pathetic that so many just want to

bury this thread.