[Mb-civic] Bush's Obstruction of History - John Wertman - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Bush's Obstruction of History

By John Wertman
Sunday, February 26, 2006; B07

At some point in the next few months, President Bush is expected to 
announce his choice for the location of his presidential library. Once 
it's open, most of the media attention is likely to focus on the public 
exhibits, which will no doubt extol the president's compassionate 
conservatism, his leadership immediately after the terrorist attacks of 
Sept. 11, 2001, and his impressive selections of John Roberts and Sam 
Alito for the Supreme Court.

More important to history, however, are the documents that the National 
Archives will store in the Bush library. These records tell the real 
story of an administration. Some reveal heartfelt empathy and honest 
division about a hard decision facing a president at a given moment in 
time; others may prove embarrassing and show nothing but the basest of 
political motivations. But for better or for worse, these records belong 
to the American people and should be available so that future 
generations can learn from the triumphs and failures of our past leaders.

It was chiefly for this reason that Congress, in 1978, passed the 
Presidential Records Act. The law was intended to ensure that after a 
period of no more than 12 years, presidential records, other than those 
dealing with existing national security matters and a few other exempted 
categories, would be made available to the public forever. Thus the law 
serves as the final check on indiscretion in office and the final basis 
for presidential accountability.

The law's presumption of public access held firm for more than two 
decades, but in 2001 President Bush used post-Sept. 11 security measures 
as a reason to issue an executive order that turns the law on its head. 
Bush's decree allows former presidents and their heirs to bar the 
release of documents for almost any reason. It flies in the face of 
congressional intent and forces our nation's leading historians to take 
legal action if they want to try to gain access to documents.

The executive order, officially No. 13233, drew quite a bit of attention 
when it was first issued. A group led by the watchdog organization 
Public Citizen challenged the order's legality in federal court, but the 
case has been plagued by procedural delays and is still pending. A 
handful of bills were introduced in Congress that would have overturned 
the order, but none made it farther than committee.

Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on efforts to force the order's 
repeal, and hardly any public or political attention is being paid to 
the issue today, even though it represents a wholesale change in the way 
the federal government preserves and promotes our national public 
memory. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Fairfax County's Rep. Tom Davis 
(R), who chair the committees with jurisdiction over presidential 
records, have been approached numerous times by historians, scholars and 
public interest groups regarding the order, but they have failed to act. 
They should look to the commendable example of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen 
Babineaux Blanco (D), who recently released 100,000 pages of records 
related to the Hurricane Katrina response. Blanco seems willing to face 
deserved criticism if it will help prevent officials from repeating 
mistakes the next time we face similar crises.

I was lucky enough to have had a chance a few years ago to ask former 
president Gerald Ford about the Presidential Records Act and was struck 
by his answer. "I firmly believe that after X period of time, 
presidential papers, except for the most highly sensitive documents 
involving our national security, should be made available to the 
public," he said, "and the sooner the better." He also told me that the 
researchers he's talked to at his presidential library have been 
grateful that most of his documents were made available. Ford's answer 
is especially telling because of the way in which he took office: He 
followed what he called the long national nightmare of Watergate into 
the White House and has a better sense than most of the importance of 
presidential accountability.

Until the original intent of the law is restored, public access to the 
records of our former presidents stands in limbo. Congress must act now 
to correct this injustice or one day the George W. Bush Presidential 
Library and Museum may be derided as a hiding place for secrets 
concerning matters that dogged the administration.

The writer was on President Bill Clinton's White House staff from 1999 
to 2001 and is now director of public policy at the Association of 
American Geographers. He will answer questions from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday 
on http://washingtonpost.com.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401805.html
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