Dean had better do this fast and completely, holding nothing back. Then take his lumps. The media loves a "Watergate."
December 3, 2003
Dean Says He's Now Considering Unsealing Vermont Files
By JODI WILGOREN
NEWTON, Iowa, Dec. 2 — Facing criticism for another day over his decision on leaving office as governor of Vermont to keep many of his official papers secret for a decade, Howard Dean said on Tuesday that he was now considering unsealing some of the records.
"We're talking about trying to be accommodating," Dr. Dean told reporters here before a town hall meeting. "We think that transparency is important. But executive privilege is a serious issue, and there are private things in there that can't be let out. We are kind of having that internal discussion."
Mr. Dean, one of nine Democratic presidential contenders, made his comments shortly before Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, planned to go after him at a fund-raiser in Vermont, for refusing to open the records.
Dr. Dean had said earlier in the day that his campaign would have a statement and backtracked.
Of Mr. Gillespie, Dr. Dean said at one point: "We thought we were going to take a whack at him. But we're not going to take a whack at him. So we don't have anything."
Questions over Dr. Dean's keeping nearly half his gubernatorial papers sealed for 10 years, longer than his two immediate predecessors' six years, have dogged him since the summer. On Monday, the issue heated up as two rivals for the nomination said he should release the papers.
His promise to follow President Bush's lead — "I'll unseal mine if he will unseal all of his," Dr. Dean said in a television interview — only intensified the criticism, because Mr. Bush's records as governor are, in fact, publicly available.
Mr. Bush had sought to store his papers in his father's presidential library, where they would have stayed secret for a half-century. But an outcry prompted a ruling from the Texas attorney general to move the papers. Now, they can be viewed at the state archive, though the current governor and the attorney general may exempt some memorandums and legal correspondence.
"I'm sure that when Dr. Dean learns that President Bush's public papers as governor are now unsealed, he will be good to his word and unseal the papers of his governorship, as well," Mr. Gillespie, the Republican chairman, said in the prepared text of remarks that he was delivering in Essex Junction, Vt. "As everyone in this room surely knows," the text continued, "your former governor would never say one thing and do another."
Vermont law allows some records to be kept confidential based on executive privilege, but there is no clear prescription for what happens when a governor leaves office. In talks with the state archivist, Dr. Dean's lawyer, David Rocchio, had sought a 24-year seal and eventually settled on 10, arguing, according to records, that a period longer than his predecessors' was necessary because of the pending national campaign.
Dr. Dean explained the 10-year seal on Vermont Public Radio shortly before leaving office in January, saying: "Well, there are future political considerations. We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor."
But on Tuesday, he said: "That was sort of a smarty remark. I mean I wasn't really being very serious about that."
Of his promise to follow Mr. Bush's lead, Dr. Dean said his staff was researching what records were available in Texas. Regarding his own archive, which includes correspondence among the governor's staff and cabinet, he said, "Honest to God truth is I don't know what's in there."
Dr. Dean said he might be legally constrained from unsealing the records because he is no longer in office, and the decision might be up to the current governor.
While citing transparency and accommodation to public inquiries as his goals, Dr. Dean said on Tuesday that he had told Mr. Rocchio "to get as long as possible" in negotiating the seal with the archivist. "Every governor that I know," he said, "tries to get their records put aside as long as reasonably possible."
A survey by Charles Schultz, a professor at Texas A&M, showed that 29 of 42 responding states require departing governors to place their records into archives and that many must make them publicly available immediately. Others keep records sealed for as little as five years or as much as 30.
On Tuesday, Dr. Dean said the 10-year seal was Mr. Rocchio's doing. "I didn't have anything to do with those negotiations other than him coming back and reporting to me," he said. "David's a very aggressive attorney. Let me suggest that you talk to David. All I'm going to do is say things that I'm going to be sorry I said later because I wasn't involved in the negotiations. David was."
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