Unseal those records, Dr. Dean
The bad news is the probable victory of George W. Bush in November. The good news is that a probability is not a certainty. So what are the issues-of-opportunity for Democrats?
My own big-three are foreign policy/national security, the loss of high-quality jobs, and the increase in government secrecy. Trashing the public’s right to know could be a powerful talking point for Democrats—but not if their own guy is easily tarred with the same brush. I’m speaking, of course, about Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean and his decision to keep his Vermont governorship records under lock and key till 2013.
"Well, there are future political considerations,” Dean told Vermont Public Radio last January. “You wouldn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor," he said of his decision to seal the records from prying, supposedly-partisan eyes.
Yeah, right. "The last place you want to be is in the post-nomination period when you haven't fielded the best candidate,” said Joe Lockhart, White House press secretary in the Clinton administration. “My point all along is not that Dean’s not the best candidate, but that for whatever reason, it doesn't feel like we've resolved all this. I think it's important for the party as a whole that the process raises the right questions and the candidates give the right answers.”
One of the right questions concerns how government decisions get made and vetted in post-9/11 America. Under the Bush administration, millions of government documents -- including many historical records previously available -- have been removed from the public domain.
Inquiring minds still want to know who participated in Dick Cheney’s energy policy task two years ago. Hint: It wasn’t California Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose January 2000 requests to meet with administration higher-ups to resolve California’s energy woes were conspicuously ignored.
Why did the administration wait two weeks before disclosing that Bremer's convoy was under attack in Iraq? Was it to make conditions over there look better than they actually were?
And why does the administration balk over releasing 9/11 information? We can't fix the problem unless we understand what caused it.
As a self-anointed spokesperson for the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party, Dean, I assume, does not support removing valuable information from the public domain and running a closed government that doesn't brook criticism. But how do I know he doesn’t suffer from the same secrecy itch that ails the current administration? By unsealing his governorship papers now rather than in 2013, Dean would go a long away toward underscoring his commitment to open government and the public’s right to know.
By way of disclosure, I’m a banner-carrying member of the Wes Clark 2004 campaign. But as a realist of the anyone-but-Bush persuasion, I want the Democrat running next November to have the best possible chance against the incumbent. Since that Democrat will most likely be Dean, I implore Deaniacs to persuade their man to unseal those records—and do it now.
12:06:40 PM 
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