Rules Are for Little People
Posted on | June 23, 2007
This invites the question: can Bush write an Executive Order so powerful that even he can’t ignore it?
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn’t specifically say so, Bush’s order was not meant to apply to the vice president’s office or the president’s office, a White House spokesman said.
The issue flared Thursday when Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) criticized Cheney for refusing to file annual reports with the federal National Archives and Records Administration, for refusing to spell out how his office handles classified documents, and for refusing to submit to an inspection by the archives’ Information Security Oversight Office.
The archives administration has been pressing the vice president’s office to cooperate with oversight for the last several years, contending that by not doing so, Cheney and his staff have created a potential national security risk…
“Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government,” the executive order said.
But from the start, Bush considered his office and Cheney’s exempt from the reporting requirements, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an interview Friday.
No real surprises here. This White House is an antonym of accountability. They fear oversight, and they don’t want pieces of paper hanging around that might be used later to document their crimes. For all his talk of freedom and democracy, George W. Bush smells like just another corrupt, petty would-be dictator.
They even tried to claim a specific exemption yesterday, but that of course was another lie.
