Just heard this on the news while I was cooking dinner, so I decided to check it out, and sure enough, it is true:
On leaving office this year, Howard Dean sealed his gubernatorial papers for 10 years
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Well, What Is He Hiding?
I’m certainly not voting for him, but if I was this would really make me wonder! What is Howard Dean Hiding? Just heard this on the news while I was cooking dinner, so I decided to check it out, and…
The Mighty Reason Man
So, by snarking Dean for something Bush did, are you conceding that the Democrats are expected to behave better than the GOP? If you are, it’s nice to finally find something upon which we agree.
As a fun little sidenote, remember that Bush also sealed the records of the Reagan administration which, 12 years having passed, were due to be released shortly after Bush took office.
What’s Bush hiding about ye olde Gipper?
John Cole
Wow- Give you an opportunity to make a faulty inference, and you never let me down.
My point was that the Dems were screaming when Bush did this, now not a peep when one of theirs does.
The Mighty Reason Man
Actually, Cole, I wasn’t making a faulty inference, I was mocking you, something which I feel fully justified in doing seeing as how you’re acting like what Dean did was a sinister plot to hide his record from the public.
Sealing gubernatorial archives is a standard practice, the justification running something along the lines of allowing the executive to perform his duties without fear that the various internal correspondances and other such things that are a part of governing won’t be immediately used against him or her politically. Executive archives are supposed to be for the historians, not political reportors. While I’m not too keen on it myself, almost literally everyone does it.
The standard period of time for Vermont governors to have their records sealed has been six years. Dean put a minimal effort into securing more than ten years, and quickly settled on ten years.
Six years is the standard because it is generally assumed that six years after leaving the governor’s mansion, an ex-governor will be out of electoral politics and therefore not open to partisan advantage being taken of his or her confidential records. Going back at least as far as Phillip Hoff in the ’60s, no governor of Vermont has been in elected office six years after vacating the governorship.
Now let’s see…what is it that Howard Dean wants to happen that might possibly lead to his remaining in politics for more than six years?
Your objections anticipated:
“But after six years, the records can’t possibly hurt him! He would already have either won or lost reelection in 2008!”
Right. Because recent history has in no way shown us that a Republican Congress could do any political harm to a sitting Democratic President two years into his second term.
“But if he’s afraid that it might hurt him politically to release them after six years, doesn’t that mean he’s hiding something?”
Not necessarily. I give you Willie Horton, ladies and gentlemen: a classic case of distortion and race baiting drawn from the gubernatorial record of the candidate being smeared. An incident, I might add, that played a role in electing the current President’s father.
And no, John, Bush was NOT sued for his gubernatorial records – they were made available due to a 1997 Texas state law passed by Bush himself.
Kimmitt
I tried really really hard to give a rat’s ass about the sealing of some gubernatorial records for ten years instead of six. But sadly, all I ended up with was the rat’s ass I started with and some wasted time.
John Cole
Sealing gubernatorial archives is a standard practice,
[sarcasm] Gee- It is standard practice. Is that why every Governor does it? Is that why all Presidents do it? Wow- how the hell could I have missed this piece in the ARTICLE I LINKED TO:
On leaving office this year, Howard Dean sealed his gubernatorial papers for 10 years
Dean
John, isn’t Estrada a Republican? What more evidence of wrongdoing is needed?
Harry
Dean just the top of a huge pile of the same ‘ol same ‘ol, so his trying to seal his gubernatorial records like the KGB doesn’t surprise me. But what does surprise me is his admitting that there probably is some embarrassing information contained in his record (That may preclude him from becoming President of the United States?) and he doesn’t want the American voting public to know about it. Unusally honest but very Clintonian: admit you may have made mistakes but hide the evidence.
jack
I guess The Mighty Reason Msn doesn’t understand hypocracy.
Bush tried to seal his records as he ran for office. He was sued by Democrats and the records were opened.
Democrats sued Bush because they felt, quite rightly, that a candidates record as a politician should not be a secret when the race is still on.
Now Dean, a Democrat, has done the same thing that Democrats sued Bush over. Not a peep from Democrats. Perhaps it, like so many other things, is only wrong when a Republican does it.
And, instead of calling them on it, you defend their right to do what your fellow travellers sued Bush to disallow.
I’m starting to wonder when dictionaries will list, under their enty for hypocrite, “See Democrat”
The Mighty Reason Man
Cole-
Yeah, I read the article you linked to. I just assumed that you had read only that article – which gives a rather skewed impression of the facts.
After all, like Mrs. West’s OpEd, you make no mention of the fact that representatives of Vermont’s last two governors (one Democrat, one Republican) requested seals of 20-30 years.
Also, according to Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, “Those [private documents Dean had sealed, as opposed to public documents] are very often the policy documents, the documents that show the rationale and the thought process that went behind adopting policies. The records that are currently open, though, are the governor’s correspondence, records of actions taken on a variety of things, actually. But most notably it’s the correspondence of the governor. So for example there’s a big box of correspondence on the civil unions law.”
Given that context, Dean’s request doesn’t seem like such a big deal, now does it?
And actually, the law Bush signed (which allowed him to designate an alternative storage facility for his records – George HW’s Presidential library) was specifically ruled to be applicable to Bush’s records.
And to clear one thing up: Bush was NOT sued for his gubernatorial records. He WAS sued because he signed an executive order allowing incumbent or former presidents to withhold the release of their presidential papers. As Presidential papers are more important by several orders of magnitude than Texas gubernatorial records, the two cases are entirely different.
And I’m glad you brought up the Estrada case. Quoting a letter sent to Leahy by seven former Solicitors-General: “Our decision-making process required the unbridled, open exchange of ideas ? an exchange that simply cannot take place if attorneys have reason to fear that their private recommendations are not private at all, but vulnerable to public disclosure.”
Which, when applied to Dean’s gubernatorial record, is a pretty good rebuttal to your snotty “At any rate, you would think the Democrats, the party of ‘the people,’ would not stoop to this sort of thing.”
Dean-
Cute. Thanks for contributing in a meaningful way.
Harry-
Impressive! Conflate Dean with both the KGB and Clinton in a single post.
But you do realize that the records being sealed are for the most part internal statehouse documents, don’t you? As in, communications between him and his staff? It’s not like his time as governor is being redacted from newspapers.
Jack-
“I guess The Mighty Reason Man doesn’t understand hypocracy.”
Actually, I do, and as an added bonus, I can spell it too.
“Bush tried to seal his records as he ran for office. He was sued by Democrats and the records were opened.”
Your entire post is based on this false premise, and as such is completely wrong. Please see my above response to Cole.
Kimmitt
“Dean just the top of a huge pile of the same ‘ol same ‘ol, so his trying to seal his gubernatorial records like the KGB doesn’t surprise me. ”
This is exactly the kind of hyperpartisan idiocy which is the cause of Dean’s decision to seal the records.
Dean
Or Bush?
Or do only Dems need to be saved from hyperpartisan idiocy?
Kimmitt
Thank you for conceding the point; have a pleasant evening.
Let’s keep in mind that most of the records of Dean’s term as governor of Vermont are already public record; what remains is part of what has traditionally been sealed under Vermont law. I do not care about Bush’s records as Governor of Texas if they were legally sealed for period of time analogous to tradition; what bothers me is Bush’s decision to seal records which were not traditionally sealed — and to massively extend the sealing of records not his own.
Honestly, though, I don’t care about either very much. I’d like a glance at Bush’s military record; that seems like it ought to be part of the public discussion, and I’m in favor of sunshine laws in general. But speaking as someone who hopes to offer unalloyed advice to powermakers at some point in the future, the fact that some records will be sealed for as much as a decade would give me a greater sense of freedom to speak.
cw
I agree.
I hate the Republican party, but I can’t stand Howard Dean either.
He needs to release his papers as I have said from the beginning.
I really, really want the public to see how close he is to Gingrich and Karl Rove.
Becky
cw,
I totally agree with your comments! I cannot stand the Republican party and like you, hate Dean. I actually sent an e-mail to Chris Matthews before Dean was on Hardball asking him to really play “hardball” with Dean. I pleaded with him to please ask Dean about the sealed files in Vermont. More than likely he never read my e-mail, never the less it makes me feel good to think I might have provoked him to ask Dean about his sealed files. Do we really want a candidate who shows this much hypocracy! If it was a republican running for office and he was hiding records to avoid any embarassment to his campaign while running for president we would all be screaming. The Dems are only proving the Ann Coulter’s and Rush Limbaugh’s of the country that they are correct. The democrats are a bunch of idiots. I have been so looking forward to the last 4 years to pass quickly so we could get the “Monkey Man” out office. Since the day the Supreme Court ignored the constitution and choose our president I have been looking for a potential democratic candidate. Kerry was the guy. A brilliant man, war hero, extensive foreign policy experience, great medical plan, (praised by Time magazine as the best plan of all the candidates) But, here we are, giving him the boot. Oh my god…he voted yes on the war (mislead by bad information and a president who lied about his approach to the UN) Then…he had the odasity to say no to the $87 million. (without seeing what the plan was for the $87 mil. asking Bush to use take back the tax cuts he gave to the wealthy or make the money a loan) Heaven forbid! I am so sick of Dean ranking on the other candidates voting record. It is easy for him…he has no voting record and the only records he has as governer of a tiny state he has sealed. It may be a normal process for a governer, but not for a governer running for president! The republicans are getting a good laugh at all of the Dem sheep flocking to Dean without giving a thought to what the guys real record is. Trust me, Carl Rove will have a hay day with Dean. If he wins the democratic nomination, it will be real interesting to see all the Dean supporters loud mouths when he gets eaten alive by the Republicans. They have enough amo right know to kill the guy and make no mistake they will find a way to get to those records. Won’t it be great, another 4 years of Bush. All because we Dems are too stupid to learn from past mistakes. We have some other great candidates, but know will go with Dean, the guy who actually has alot in common with Bush. But then what do I know, I am one of those weird democrats who actually knows the record and experience of the candidates! I guess I need to get a life!
MBankaT
Too bad DEAN and you supporters got the BASIS of the arguement wrong (no surprise to me there)… Bush’s records in Texas were NEVER Sealed. It is state law:
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/findingaids/bush.html
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1034515/posts
FreeRepublic.com “A Conservative News Forum”
GMA Fails to Correct Dean
jim
h.dean,give us all a break keep your mouth shut.