Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics stymied again. Poor FOIA! At least someone is trying, but the judiciary is apparently becoming just another corrupt arm of corporate America.
Politico.Com says it best. This is unf'nbelievable! Obama is acting more and more Bush-like everyday. If this does not help convince you Dems of the fundamental dysfunction of the Illinois corruption machine in the White House, what will? Or is this just simply an act of cowardice? Or is it further evidence of the corporate-ocracy at work, i.e., regardless of regime, the trends continue ...
Rebound marriage, America!
Here we go:
Wrap your head around this: The Obama administration wants to save former Vice President Dick Cheney from the likes of "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.
That was the thrust of arguments the Justice Department presented Thursday seeking to prevent the release of an interview Cheney gave in 2004 to Special Counsel Pat Fitzgerald as part of his investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.
In an afternoon U.S. District Court hearing in Washington, Judge Emmet Sullivan presided as Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith defended the government’s refusal to release the details of the Cheney interview. David Sobel, an attorney for the group suing for the documents, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was there to argue in favor of disclosure. Here’s how it went:
Sullivan asked if President Barack Obama’s appointees stood by the Bush administration’s steadfast refusal to make the Cheney interview public, noting, “there’s a new administration.”
“This has been vetted by the leadership offices,” Smith said. “This is a department position.”
“It is disappointing that the new administration apparently is picking up where the old one left off,” said Sobel.
AND FURTHER:
Sobel argued that the government’s stance would render the records of any kind of White House-related investigation off limits to the public — not just an inquiry into a sensitive issue like the disclosure of classified information.
“The argument would apply to a murder in the White House, selling drugs in the White House, bribery in the White House,” Sobel said. “We would be carving out the White House ... for special treatment.”
Sobel also said it was "unseemly" for the court or the Obama administration to be predicting that there would be illegal activity involving White House officials.
