msnbc upset because transparent obama not so transparent after all
By American Girl in Italy on June 16, 2009 at 4:01 PM in Current Affairs
MSNBC finally realizes that President Obama is not so translucent after all. The funny thing is that msnbc couldn’t see through Obama all along. Now, they are complaining because the President they helped get elected, pined over, and well, hell, got all tingly over, won’t share his WH visitors list with them.
It seems msnbc asked the White House for the list of all visitors to the White House since January 20, and Obama chose to stick to the Bush way of doing things.
The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.
Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.
CREW says it will file a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. (Updated: Here’s a copy of CREW’s complaint.)
I wonder who they are hiding? Some of Obama’s old buddies from Chicago? Maybe some of his relatives? That could be a long list.
“We are deeply disappointed,” said CREW attorney Anne L. Weismann, “that the Obama administration is following the same anti-transparency policy as the Bush administration when it comes to White House visitor records. Refusing to let the public know who visits the White House is not the action of a pro-transparency, pro-accountability administration.”
Groups that advocate open government have argued that it’s vital to know the names of White House visitors, who may have an outsized influence on policy matters.
This seems like a direct reversal of his promise to be more transparent, no? His transparency statement, from the WH web site:
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
Under Obama’s new transparency policy, shouldn’t we, the people, know who has a hand in influencing policy, or who is pressuring the government for their own special interests?
In late January and again in May, the Obama administration had opportunities to change course, when it filed papers in the appeals court, but stuck with the Bush position.
“It’s great that President Obama made this commitment to transparency,” attorney Weismann said. “But now you need to make good on it.”
by Ronald Scott
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