The Less You Know

Publius over at Obsidian Wings makes some comments on executive privilege that seem very sensible.

But I can’t help but to feel that this whole issue is very odd. All of these people, including the President, ostensibly work for us, the American people. It seems to me that we have a right to their work product, seeing as we paid for it. Further, the notion that should you be so fortunate as to actually be able to get a job giving advice to the executive of our country, you aren’t going to waste the opportunity simply because what you say might have an impact which goes outside of the room you happen to be talking to the President in. Indeed, I would think that having your advice to the President have public import is the purpose of giving advice to the President. And if you are willing to have your advice matter in the kind of way that advice to the President of the United States matters, then it is sort of pathetic to suggest that you aren’t willing to identify yourself as the source of that advice.

The American public is generally very opposed to secrecy in their government; the widespread ire over Congressional earmarks is evidence of that. Yet when it comes to executive privilege, people are fairly supportive of Presidential claims. I cannot explain that dichotomy. But it has always struck me as odd. After Nixon, people always said that no other President would be so stupid as to allow tape recorders in the White House. I always felt that, considering the import of the Nixon tapes, it was strange that the American people who supposedly rule this country didn’t demand that every conversation in the White House be recorded from then on. We might like to know what really happened someday. And considering we pay for it, don’t we have a right to know?

~ by jamesfeldman on June 24, 2008.