Shine a light

In order to make educated decisions in electing and judging presidents, it is essential that we understand what these leaders did and said, in their official capacity, while in elected office. \nWith this idea in mind, legislators created the Presidential Records Act in 1978, requiring all official presidential correspondence to be recorded for current and future generations to read and study. The act was passed, in part, to combat what many viewed as an increasing trend of presidential secrecy by Nixon administration. But 30 years after the PRA was signed, we continue to see the executive branch demand more rights to communicate and act in secrecy, safely away from the eyes of the public it’s meant to serve. \nThe need for secrecy in certain national security issues is a given. But what happens when the administration wants to block records from the public in order to hide possible illegal activity or political embarrassment? This is what appears to be happening right now with the Bush administration’s move to block investigators from obtaining top administration officials’ e-mails as evidence in criminal investigations. \nThe House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, headed by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., requested e-mails from top administration officials that could provide information on some of the criminal cases involving Jack Abramoff and the Justice Department’s firing of eight U.S attorneys. The White House has long delayed giving any information to the investigators and has even gone so far as to claim that over 5 million of the e-mails wanted as evidence have been “lost.”\nAre we to believe that the very same administration pleading for more power to monitor other people’s phone calls and e-mails apparently cannot even keep track of its own? The most upsetting part is that the White House will not even tell the name of the company responsible for archiving all the administration’s GOP e-mails until mid-September. \nMany might say that Democrats are just as guilty, but two of the biggest challenges to PRA have occurred under Republican presidents (more specifically President Reagan and the current President Bush). That doesn’t mean Democrats are immune. \nWhat about Hillary Clinton and her refusal to release more than 2 million pages of her White House documents? Clinton’s memos, appointment logs and other documents are stored at her husband’s Presidential Library, locked away so tightly that Clinton’s critics have started calling it “Little Rock’s Fort Knox.” Let there be no mistake – she is embarrassing herself every day with her cringe-worthy reasoning for withholding her documents. But those trying to compare the importance of a first lady’s decade-old documents to the Bush Administration’s criminal evidence documents and e-mails are grasping at straws. \nTo sum up, we only need look at Patrick Henry’s words when he said: “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” \nAnd let’s hope we never forget \nthat advice.