Geoffrey Stone, a longtime Obama supporter (and former colleague at the University of Chicago) has a piece in the New York Times taking the president to task for his record on government secrecy and transparency. President Obama had campaigned on a campaign of openness and public accountability but, well, things haven't quite worked out so well.
He gives President Obama good marks on classification issues but low marks on the rest:
But his record on whistle-blower protection, another key area of concern, has been less laudable. In early 2009 members of Congress enthusiastically introduced the Whistle-Blower Protection Enhancement Act, which promised substantial protection to certain classes of government employees who report matters of legitimate public concern to lawmakers or the media. Although as a candidate Mr. Obama had expressed support for such a law, his administration cooled to the idea and let it die in the Senate in late 2010 (it was reintroduced in April 2011). Sadly, as a number of high-profile criminal cases against whistle-blowers show, the Obama administration has followed its predecessor in aggressively cracking down on unauthorized leaks.
President Obama has also followed Mr. Bush in zealously applying the state secrets doctrine, a common-law principle intended to enable the government to protect national security information from disclosure in litigation. Although legitimate in theory, the doctrine had been invoked in an unprecedented manner by the Bush administration to block judicial review of a broad range of questionable practices.
And we learn that the Obama administration has aggressively asserted the privilege in cases dealing with the wiretapping of American citizens, etc. Seems there's a disconnect between candidate Obama and President Obama:
In what seems to be a recurring theme, Senator Obama supported the Free Flow of Information Act, but President Obama does not. In 2007, he was one of the sponsors of the original Senate bill, but in 2009 he objected to the scope of the privilege envisioned by the bill and requested that the Senate revise the bill to require judges to defer to executive branch judgments. Although the bill passed in the House in the last Congressional session, it stalled in the Senate and now has to be reintroduced.
Stone ends by saying that the whole debacle is a lesson in "trust us." As in, don't trust any politician.
Stone didn't even mention other episodes in transparency, such as federal agencies ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests in instances such as the Justice Department's handling of the Black Panther voter case. Stone also didn't mention the problems broadcast media outlets have faced in gaining access to report on things such as treaty signings. And then there's the little problem of the Obama administration punishing media outlets that dare to criticize it.
Of course the op-ed above was only published because it tied criticism of Obama to criticism of Bush. But there are a whole host of additional transparency problems with this administration that deserve greater scrutiny, too, right?
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Shocker: Transparency Advocate Finds Disconnect Between Candidate Obama and President Obama
Shocker: Sarcasm Found in Ricochet Headline!
Concur that there is little connection between the positions and promises of the Obama campaign and the performance as President. A huge chunk of that has been for the better, but he hasn't disconnected enough to ever be rated "good" as a president.
Rock on, Mollie.
Oct '10
Re: Shocker: Transparency Advocate Finds Disconnect Between Candidate Obama and President Obama
Mild at best, Can anyone ferret out a promise made leading up to taking the Oath that Obama has kept ? In other words, how many reversals of his proposed policies and promises ?
Re: Shocker: Transparency Advocate Finds Disconnect Between Candidate Obama and President Obama
Ooh. I do have that problem. But I'm so disappointed that people express shock when politicians turn out to be politicians.
May '10
Re: Shocker: Transparency Advocate Finds Disconnect Between Candidate Obama and President Obama
Actually, I think this is more indicative of the fantasyland that most Democrats live in. They believe a lot of things until faced with the cold, hard facts of governing. The newly installed executive learns things but the rank and file (and even those in the Congress) stubbornly hold on to their misconceptions.
On the other hand, Republican presidents have an easier time with the nuts and bolts of transparency like maintaining proper visitor logs.