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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (18651)	12/4/2003 8:30:48 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793597

Dean is digging his own grave with this. The press is setting there just slavering. What could he have done as Governor of Vermont that warrants this kind of secrecy? Argument unravels: Dean still refuses to unseal Vt. gubernatorial records By David R. Guarino Thursday, December 4, 2003 Despite his claim that he cannot release his gubernatorial papers because of privacy and safety concerns, Vermont Democrat Howard Dean has already made public sensitive security documents and letters detailing people's medical histories, records show. Tucked in boxes of Dean's publicly available files, the documents obtained by the Herald appear to undercut the presidential front-runner's chief excuse for keeping many of his records private. The records could bolster arguments from Dean rivals that the hidden papers in fact have little to do with personal data but feature the kinds of ``embarrassing'' revelations Dean last year said he feared would hurt his presidential campaign. ``My guess is that if Howard Dean and his advisers did not consider a document to be politically embarrassing, they released it,'' said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based group suing to open Dean's secret files. Dean sealed many of his government files for 10 years - including all his press releases and many speeches, keeping them private until 2013. Previous governors sealed records for six years. ``There are some that are left private . . . some of the kinds of things might be a letter from a constituent saying, `Dear governor, I am an HIV, AIDS victim, can you please help me?' Now, those kinds of letters do not belong in the public, and they're not. That's why some records are sealed,'' Dean said on MSNBC Monday. But the documents obtained by the Herald appear to include the information Dean says he wants protected. The documents include five security directives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks - several are direct correspondence from NRC Chairman Richard A. Meserve to Dean. Most of the papers are marked ``not for public disclosure'' and threaten civil and criminal penalties. Also readily available are letters written to and from Dean detailing personal struggles and medical conditions of his constituents. They include correspondence with a couple about the care of their daughter with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's and a couple who detailed to Dean the medication they take. Also made public: a 1991 letter to Sheri Arpin of St. Albans, who wrote Dean looking for help with her depression. Arpin said she was shocked the letter was released, given Dean's claims that he's protecting those who wrote to him. ``I figured he read it, sent it through the shredding machine or in a personal file,'' she said yesterday. ``I wish he had. That was a time when I was extremely ill.'' Officials of the Dean campaign did not return calls for comment yesterday. news.bostonherald.com