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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2427)	1/29/2002 11:41:31 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

Bush's big message was that we are jumping into other "wars" soon.............Look out everyone..our Prezeldent just announced that we will be attacking rogue nations.........he just provoked them into starting a violent encounter....then we'll have justification to attack them. Doesn't it make ya all feel good to know we are gettin ready to kick some more butt?..............( tongue in cheek). Make no mistake about it!!! ( I have heard Bush say that ad nauseum ). And yes he makes me nauseous!

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (2427)	1/30/2002 12:00:55 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Illuminating the Cheney Task Force "Almost 60 percent of Americans, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll, believe the Bush administration is hiding something about Enron. As the public ponders what deals the administration and Enron may have been making in the shadows, it is more important than ever to let the sun shine in. The New York Times Editorial January 29, 2002 Sunshine, the Watergate-era rallying cry proclaimed, is the best disinfectant. It is a credo that, 30 years later, is more relevant than ever as the White House and Congress battle over whether records from Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force should be made public. The documents being sought by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, would shed light on the role Enron played in the development of the Bush administration's energy policies. The White House insists Enron had no untoward influence, but Mr. Cheney has admitted that he or his aides sat down some half-dozen times with officials from Enron, a generous donor to the Bush presidential campaign and other Republican causes. The Bush energy plan does many things Enron might have asked for, including easing environmental rules, providing tax cuts to energy companies and opening nature preserves to drilling. The White House insists that release of the documents would have a chilling effect on the willingness of corporations and private citizens to provide it with the unvarnished truth about matters of public policy. It is highly unlikely, however, that the sort of special interest groups that appear before these task forces are such shrinking violets that they would suddenly refuse to lobby the White House if their identities were revealed. No more convincing is the White House's claim that the G.A.O.'s request is a "partisan fishing expedition." David Walker, the G.A.O. head, was a member of the Reagan and the first Bush administrations. His calls for release of the documents have won the support of some loyal Republicans, including Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee. All Republicans should recognize that this dispute is the mirror image of the 1993 battle over Hillary Clinton's insistence that records from her White House health care task force be kept secret. Republicans protested that secrecy, and the Clinton administration backed down. Openness was the right answer then, and it's the right answer now. The G.A.O. is prepared to argue in court that the administration's secrecy runs afoul of Congressional investigative prerogatives and of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a 1972 law enacted to bring greater openness to federal government deliberations. Almost 60 percent of Americans, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll, believe the Bush administration is hiding something about Enron. As the public ponders what deals the administration and Enron may have been making in the shadows, it is more important than ever to let the sun shine in. nytimes.com