Kristof's NYTimes editorial (fee) today has the following sentence:
First, Democrats should wipe the smiles off their faces. This is a humiliation for the entire country, and their glee is unseemly.
This is something that has been bothering me for a while. All the talk about Fitzmas on the web on the various political blogs. And the seeming sheer joy over the indictment of Libby.
Yes. Be happy that people who lie get caught. But that they were in the US Government in such a high-up position with multiple security clearances? No. I don't like Bush or his policies, but 3 years of a crippled White House will be awful. Special interests will go nuts and fill the power vacuum. Imagine if we had, say, a huge earthquake here in Seattle!?
What we need is more transparency. I don't think there is anything illegal about how this white house has withheld information from the public (there may be, I just don't know). But when you don't know what is going on, how can you trust? And further, people not exposed to light will feel more willing to do something "dark". I understand Bush isn't going to shake up the white house at this point. But the real reform he needs to enact is a more open governing process. I don't see how he can be committed to a government "above reproach" and still claim that closed government is the right thing to do.
Actually, my real fear is that no future presidency will be less open than the current one.
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