Obama, like Bush, Blocks Access to White House Visitor Logs (names of coal executives requested)

I wonder if he's back in hot pursuit of liquid coal. Who knows? I hope future candidates for the presidency will run on a platform of transparency. Oh. Wait. Nevermind.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/06/16/obama-blocks-access-to-wh-visitor-logs.aspx

Will the Obama White House make its visitor logs public? Administration officials have launched a formal review in the wake of a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a Washington ethics group that has been trying to gain access under the Freedom of Information Act to a list of those who have come to see administration officials in recent months. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, who previously sued the Bush administration for similar records, had requested names of any coal executives who have visited Obama officials during the first few months of the administration. The request was denied, as was a similar request to the administration from MSNBC, which asked for the names of everybody who had visited the White House since Inauguration Day. Asked about the logs during the press briefing today, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the policy is under review by the White House Counsel's office, though he declined to say how long the review could last. Asked if the administration still seeks to be more transparent than previous White Houses—a key Obama campaign promise--Gibbs replied, “I think we ran on that.”

The logs are maintained by the Secret Service, but the Obama administration has argued, as the Bushies did, that the visitor logs have historically fallen under the Presidential Records Act. That means they would be exempt from FOIA requests and would not made public until years after a president has left office. But that argument was twice rejected by a federal judge during the Bush years.

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despite any pesky campaign rhetoric to the contrary.

Standard disclaimer - still my President, still not ashamed of voting for him three times here in Texas, still willing to work with him on issues I agree with him on...

...but starting to look for a primary challenger in 2012.

A perfect example of why I did not vote for Obama and refuse to join his sickening fan club.

http://mre.pimpinturtle.com/2009/06/16/remember-dick-cheney-claiming-his-white-house-visitor-logs-were-secret-and-blocking-media-access-to-them-barack-obama-just-did-the-same-thing-refuses-lawful-request-to-disclose-visits-by.aspx

Obama blocks list of visitors to White House
Taking Bush's position, administration denies msnbc.com request for logs

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

Updated: CREW says it filed suit Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. Here's a copy of CREW's complaint.

"We are deeply disappointed," said CREW attorney Anne L. Weismann, "that the Obama administration is following the same anti-transparency policy as the Bush administration when it comes to White House visitor records. Refusing to let the public know who visits the White House is not the action of a pro-transparency, pro-accountability administration."

Updated: The White House reiterated that the policy is under review. See transcript below.

Groups that advocate open government have argued that it's vitalto know the names of White House visitors, who may have an outsized influence on policy matters.

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