There's A Reason Why You Can't Know ... Just Because

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Jan 20, 2002

There's A Reason Why You Can't Know ... Just Because

DANIEL RUTH

Maybe absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, but it sure can make one powerfully shy.

Lost under the radar of the success in the war on terrorism and the resulting high popularity ratings is the growing feeling the Bush administration has become (or wants to, perhaps) the Greta Garbo of American presidential history.

Curious, especially in light of the colossal collapse of Enron, the nation's seventh-largest corporation, which was consulted by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer in formulating the nation's energy policy?

Keep wondering. Cheney won't say. It's none of your business. You're merely an American citizen.

Maybe, as a member of Congress you had an interest in documents from the administrations of former Present George Bush right up through Bill Clinton's fundraising scandals? Sorry. They are out of reach, too, because of a recent executive order signed by his son restricting access to Daddio and Slick Willie's files.

Indeed, even 43's documents from his years as Texas governor have been sent into a sort of academic witness protection program.

Batting Stats

A few days ago, President Bush sent his Lone Star papers, not to the state's archives as his predecessors have done, but rather they've been filed away at his father's presidential library and are not subject to Texas public records laws.

For crying out loud, what's he got to hide? As governor of Texas, all Bush did was sign death warrants and collect baseballs.

Indeed, as a man not known for overburdening his Austin staff with demands for reading material, the sum total of the former governor's ``papers'' probably wouldn't fill a three-ring binder and half of that could well be Texas Ranger's batting statistics.

Why all the secrecy? Who knows? But the simple answer might be that when one is infected with Potomac Fever, a side effect is engaging in obtuse secrecy because - one can.

Despite all the hail-fellow-well-met stump demeanor of George W. Bush, he shares a congenital family trait of intensely abhorring any and all manner of public scrutiny.

If his brother, Jeb, had his way, he probably would govern Florida from a secret undisclosed location - in Guam - if it meant never having to speak to another reporter.

GOP Omerta

In the case of his father, the president's decision to hide 41's files might have something to do with protecting him from lingering Iran-Contra scandal questions when he served as vice president to Ronald Reagan.

Unfair? Maybe. But there's a simple way of clearing the air, isn't there?

Cheney's Republican version of omerta is even more vexing.

Enron's implosion, ruining tens of thousands of lives brought to the brink of financial catastrophe while its executives, led by chairman Ken Lay, feasted like pigs on their stock options, is a scandal only just beginning to ripple across Wall Street - and Washington.

The vice president has refused to disclose who was involved in the deliberations to formulate a national energy policy or, for that matter, who said what. He argues that such information would ``unconstitutionally interfere'' with his White House duties - an alibi even the White House regards as pure, unadulterated poppycock.

If this sort of arrogant hubris had occurred during the Clinton years, by now there would be subpoenas flying out of Congress faster than you could shake a Marc Rich at.

Indeed, when Hillary Rodham Clinton attempted the exact same kind of secrecy over a national health care plan in 1992, the cacophony of protest was deafening.

Since when has providing public information to the American people on a subject that affects every single citizen represented constitutional interference?

Is Cheney suggesting the public has no right to know whether a politically powerful corporation run by a bunch of greedy, conniving, modern-day robber barons had a role in drafting a national energy policy that might have benefited the company in some improper way?

Or is Cheney concerned that if Enron's role is revealed within his privy councils, it might make Al Gore's Buddhist Temple visit look like a pilgrimage to the Holy Land?

Is that unfair? Quite possibly so.

But there's a simple way of clearing the air, isn't there? This is the vice presidency, Mr. Cheney, not a Skull & Bones Society.

This story can be found at : http://tampatrib.com/News/MGAH7NOGOWC.html



-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), January 24, 2002

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-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), January 24, 2002.

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