Obama Eliminates Bush’s Executive Privilege Order
On his second day in office, Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise when he replaced George W. Bush’s executive order pertaining to executive privilege and the release – or withholding, in Bush’s case – of presidential records.
Obama:
Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution.
This is a good thing. Government should be transparent whenever possible and presidents, as we all know, are neither above the law nor beyond the need for scrutiny.
Executive orders such as these come and go and former President Bush had to know that his would not long survive his presidency. Presumedly it served its purpose by allowing him to keep certain records private during two terms in office.
Though I’ve long maintained that a Democratic president would have largely followed the same path with regard to the War on Terror and its conduct, it will be interesting to see what untoward information, if any, is ultimately revealed in the wake of Obama’s decision to lessen the protection level Bush administration documents will have.
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I may have to read the order again, but as far as I’m aware, it more or less reinstated the previous Executive Order written by Ronald Reagan, though perhaps with a few changes.
Much of the information will probably still wait 12 years before being released.
Now, as for Ronnie and George H.W.’s records, well, the waiting period is up.
Am I the only one who finds it odd that these rules could be made by Executive Order anyway? Kind of a fox and henhouse sort of thing as far as I can see.
he contradicts himself.
This all has little to do with Presidents themselves, but the ones that the President feels their subordinates should have the same protection.
Obama is definitely keeping the power for himself.