Editorial: President should release White House visitor list

24 Apr 2008 // The presidency is a powerful position, the most powerful in the world, powerful enough to withstand the disclosure of a visitors list.

President Bush would have you think otherwise.

President Bush is wrong.

White House lawyers, responding to a federal judge who had ordered the release of the list last year, contend the disclosure would erode the power of the office — a specious argument that merely enhances the view of this administration as closed and secretive.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group seeking the list, does not want a transcript of the conversations between these visitors and the president and vice president.

If it did, the White House might have a case; instead, the group merely wants the list to determine how often prominent religious conservatives visited both the White House and the vice presidential residence.

The group seems to have a clear political agenda — to gauge the influence of religious leaders on the administration — but so be it; there is nothing nefarious in that motivation, nothing that could weaken the office of the presidency.

A federal judge, issuing his ruling in December, agreed, and the case is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

A Justice Department lawyer recently argued that the "visitor calendars" should be considered White House documents, which would keep them from public view for more than 10 years, the Associated Press reported.

"What in the documents are so quintessentially presidential?" Judge David Tatel asked, according to the news service.

"The name of the person going in to visit," a Justice Department lawyer replied.

"That's a public building," the judge said. "You can stand out on 17th Street and watch who goes in and out."

By fighting the simple request of the Washington group, the White House is displaying its unreasonable devotion to secrecy.

Executive privilege is not a quaint notion; there are some things that, due to national security, should remain hidden from scrutiny.

This is not one of them.