If you were a Republican, and the Democratic White House just opened unprecedented numbers of government records to the public, what would you do?
***Update***
Not that I disagree with the idea of opening up the government to scrutiny by the rest of us. Just the reverse! I am thrilled to see Obama live up to a promise involving government records. Too bad the media won’t take sides every time rightwing activists lose their shit over some ordinary thing (it might compromise their evenhandedness) and Obama will most likely end up regretting it.
***Update 2***
Don’t get too excited about any Plamegate docs showing up. Obama has blocked every chance to shine daylight on the last administration. You might as well remember it now or else you’ll keep getting disappointed again and again – he does. not. want. that. fight. Congress will have to force him to move forward on accountability for Gonzo, Plame, Iraq, torture or anything else. Otherwise we might as well get used to the eight year memory hole.
Today’s directive will almost certainly cover government operations going forward.
Sly
Depends.
Bush Administration Official? Lawyer up.
Congressional Republican? Yell about how Obama is criminalizing policy decisions by blah blah blah yankee foxtrot purple-nurple window cleaner.
SpotWeld
If the GOP to date has been any example:
“Whine Like a 5-yr-old”?
Kennedy
Bitch and complain that it’s a step in the direction, but it’s not enough, obviously.
Dreggas
ummm wet myself while screaming about how this will help the terrorists?
Start pursuing records dating back to the clinton admin to try and tar the dems with?
In other words act like a bunch of toddlers.
Kennedy
Bitch and complain that it’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough, obviously.
freelancer
[snort]
valdivia
wait is this post implying Obama doing this is a bad thing or is my snark meter off?
El Cid
Immediately start looking for the secret ACORN hash marks.
General Winfield Stuck
Yes, but where is that goddamn Whitey Tape?
Bubblegum Tate
I’m gonna go with “claim Stalin did the same thing. As did Hitler. Also.”
Pangloss
I’d say the safe word: “Green Balloons.”
MikeJ
What if you were a liberal who wanted to claim that Obama was just like Bush?
Zifnab
Depending on what’s in there, I’d shit a brick.
These info dumps inevitably release another truck load of manure from the Bush Years back room.
Rick Taylor
What about his birth certificate, huh? What about his kindergarten records? When’s he going to release those, huh?
Why oh why
In theory, go through the records page by page, looking for potentially embarassing revelations. But that is hard work.
In practice, complain about the length of the records and warn it is all a communist plot to embolden Al Qaeda.
Bubblegum Tate
@Rick Taylor:
That’s a winner right there.
General Winfield Stuck
Thank you. And likely true.
Just Some Fuckhead
If President Obama does nothing wrong, he’s got nothing to worry about. OTOH, rightwingers just make shit up anyway regardless of the facts.
JenJen
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Funny you should mention that, because I just finished this interview with John Stossel (look, I was a little bored) and was thinking the same thing as you. First up for Stossel’s new show? An expose on how totally right Ayn Rand was about everything!
Yes, really.
ETA: I did appreciate the part of the interview where we learn Peter Jennings thought Stossel was a fucking asshat and refused to even look at him when they would pass in the ABC News corridors. Kind of made reading the whole thing worth it.
General Winfield Stuck
LOL, knew it wouldn’t last. All I can say is wouldn’t it be swell to have that fight when we are in the middle of HCR, to be followed by climate change legislation, along with another stimulus, not to mention a long list of wedge social issues to correct.
Meanwhile, Holder and his SP are finding out what happened. Obama goes for “that fight” now and likely he doesn’t get reelected and welcome the new wingnut POTUS, not to mention making other needed changes:or, doesn’t go for that fight now and maybe gets reelected with no more campaigns to win. Then we push for accountability, that is my plan.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Obama has blocked every chance to shine daylight on the last administration. You might as well remember it now or else you’ll keep getting disappointed again and again – he does. not. want. that. fight.
Not now, when he has a big domestic agenda to get passed. Of course, if the Repubs remain the party of no and find a way to torpedo his relection chances, then he won’t have anything to lose by having that fight. He might even gain from it, by reminding the public just who the Repubs are.
arguingwithsignposts
@JenJen:
From the interview:
escutcheon? Really? How far in the thesaurus did Grove have to go to dig that one out?
R-Jud
@arguingwithsignposts:
He’s been saving it ever since he had to look it up after some smartass scored 89 points off him with it in a game of Scrabble.
Annie
@General Winfield Stuck:
It is right next to the tapes that show he was born in Kenya, and then reborn in Indonesia, right next to tapes that show he is a Marxist, Stalinist, and Maoist,next to the hidden tapes that show he is a Muslim, next to his dental records, and every record from every doctor he ever visited, and next to his records from primary, secondary, and university, right next to all of his dinner receipts (did he or did he not drink alcohol), and finally next to the records that show is smokes…
Just Some Fuckhead
@JenJen:
Funny, growing up in the so-called “religious right” culture that now owns the Republican party, we were told Peter Jennings was “the good one” of the network anchors. Of course, Rather was the devil incarnate.
JenJen
@General Winfield Stuck: I don’t much care for your plan, as I’m not a terribly patient person. But I think you’re right, and I like the way you think.
@Just Some Fuckhead: That’s interesting. I always figured Jennings got lumped in with Evil Dan Rather. Where did your people stand on Tom Brokaw (and don’t say “neck” either)?
This quote by Stossel sticks out: “And Peter felt he was upholding the objectivity of ABC and I was violating that, I was bad for ABC.”
And you know what, Stossel? Peter was right! For example, you mentioned Barney Frank, like, three different times over the course of maybe 500 words in that interview. You also seem to carry a bit of an obsession with Michael Moore. So maybe, just maybe, you should think about how Peter Jennings reached his opinion about you.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Just Some Fuckhead: Note to JenJen: this was before the Fox network. Of course, even then we knew reporter Brit Hume was one of us.
arguingwithsignposts
More from the interview linked by @JenJen:
Nothing good can come of this. I’m sure McArglebargle will show up on the show at some point.
General Winfield Stuck
@JenJen:
Neither do I.
Joe Beese
[[ “The agencies are all each required to put up these open government plans,” McDermott said, “but there’s no indication of who’s going to oversee [them] and oversee [their] implementation and the quality of their implementation. It’s as if the OMB is expecting the public to do this.” ]]
Well, it will give us something to do when we’re imprisoned for being unable to afford the mandated health insurance candidate Obama said he was opposed to.
Shawn in ShowMe
Republican: Why does the president rush into a decision that could potentially embolden our enemies? The American people deserve an open debate about this.
Washington Post: Critics of President Obama’s action say that it has made Americans less safe.
Kos Recommended Diarist: You know what’s really transparent? Obama’s attempt to appear progressive.
jeffreyw
Post needs another tag. How about “Troll Bait”?
AB
Regarding the second update, I read that the Administration filed a motion to dismiss cases against John Yoo :(
mclaren
Accountability?
Your words are unknown to me, stranger. What is this “accountability” you speak of?
joe from Lowell
This can’t possibly be true. I’ve been assured for months that Obama has ignored his promise to promote transparency, and is in fact just like Bush, rather than change we can believe in, from people who were so certain that they felt comfortable gloating.
Say, you don’t suppose they might be wrong, do you?
joe from Lowell
Hey, look over there! Obama is sending additional troops to Afghanistan, just like Bush…uh…that is to say…uh…it’s kinda…
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell!
aww
i’ve not read the other comments, so i apologize if i repeat something already stated.
anyhow, this is the very issue that blows my mind. if there is soooooooo much dirt to be exposed to light on the last administration, why is this NOT a bargaining chip with the group of people who enabled the malfeasance of the bush years??? one would think that subtle, closed-door hints about leaks concerning the details (and participants) of certain past “deliberative” processes would force certain dedicated “sticks in the mud” to reconsider which battles they choose to fight.
i’m left wondering if bush truly left nothing incriminating behind…..or more depressingly, if Obama lacks the nuts that Clinton would have wielded.
catclub
I really do not understand this attitude:
“Not now, when he has a big domestic agenda to get passed. Of course, if the Repubs remain the party of no and find a way to torpedo his relection chances, then he won’t have anything to lose by having that fight. He might even gain from it, by reminding the public just who the Repubs are.
”
How much more could they be the party of no and obstruction?
Get them excited obstructing an investigation into Bush, Cheney (torture) Rove (emails) and Gonzo, and they might be too distracted to stop HCR and Cap and trade.