Gosh, They Had No Idea!
In the matter of Supreme-Court nominee Roberts, I read someone quoting someone about the tens of thousands of pages of documents that the White House was refusing to release about Roberts' legal career, his opinions and ideas, his writings on the law, and such things.
The thought that lept into my mind was: what is the nature of these documents that gives the White House leave to control their release? I went to the article quoted on the matter* and discovered that these were papers generated when Roberts was doing legal advising in the Regan administration; hence, they were among the Regan presidential papers. As we may remember, Bush made an executive order in 2001 giving him extended powers to control papers from previous administrations. Culture of secrecy, and all that.
Okay, that's all just everyday scandal for this adminstration. But wait! The article offered these entertaining paragraphs (among others):
Before Roberts's July 19 selection by President Bush, there was no comprehensive effort to examine the voluminous paper trail from his previous tours as an important legal and political hand under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, administration officials said.
Three weeks later, these officials say they recognize that Roberts's record is going to be central to Senate confirmation hearings scheduled to begin Sept. 6, and lawyers and political aides are urgently reviewing more than 50,000 pages — at the same time denying requests from Democrats for an immediate release.
Okay, to summarize: W decided to nominate Roberts to the Supreme Court — by some reports having made the decision long before 19 July while he pretended to seek advice on the choice — and the White House had no idea that people might be interested in what was evidently substantial legal work that Roberts did in the Regan Administation.
Is this just so Bush League, or what?
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*Jo Becker, "Roberts Papers Being Delayed: Bush Aides Screen Pages for Surprises", Washington Post, 10 August 2005.
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on Sunday, 14 August 2005 at 01.53
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I thought the administration had readily handed over a large batch of documents from Roberts' work in the Reagan years, but that they were playing hard to get with his later work for Bush 41.
How like Bush to be the one extending his power to control documents from previous administrations. This indicates to me he probably recalls skeletons in his father's White House closet.