Reply #46: The difference between night and day.

[Octafish]

Bush has to do everything, but everything, under the cover of darkness. The "most secret administration in history":

Bush Administration most secretive ever

Government Openness at Issue as Bush Holds Onto Records

By Adam ("Big Time") Clymer
New York Times
Friday 3 January 2003

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 -- The Bush administration has put a much tighter lid than recent presidents on government proceedings and the public release of information, exhibiting a penchant for secrecy that has been striking to historians, legal experts and lawmakers of both parties.

Some of the Bush policies, like closing previously public court proceedings, were prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and are part of the administration's drive for greater domestic security. Others, like Vice President Dick Cheney's battle to keep records of his energy task force secret, reflect an administration that arrived in Washington determined to strengthen the authority of the executive branch, senior administration officials say.

Some of the changes have sparked a passionate public debate and excited political controversy. But other measures taken by the Bush administration to enforce greater government secrecy have received relatively little attention, masking the proportions of what dozens of experts described in recent interviews as a sea change in government openness.

SNIP...

The Ashcroft directive encouraged federal agencies to reject requests for documents if there was any legal basis to do so, promising that the Justice Department would defend them in court. It was a stark reversal of the policy set eight years earlier, when the Clinton administration told agencies to make records available whenever they could, even if the law provided a reason not to, so long as there was no "foreseeable harm" from the release.

CONTINUED...

http://villagenews.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$7006

As far as I'm concerned, it's like the New Testament said: Only crooks do stuff under the cover of darkness.

PS: A most hearty welcome to DU, chieftain! Great post and Spirit!



http://oceanswims.com/oceania/pt109.html

BTW: Bush, like most conservatives, is too chicken to actually do anything like what JFK did during the PT-109 ordeal.