Another Disappointment

I supported Barack Obama in the last election, and I still do. I believe he is a vast improvement over the last president we had. But that does not mean I support everything he's done. In fact, a couple of his actions have been very disappointing.

The first has to do with Iraq. On the campaign trail, candidate Obama promised voters that he would withdraw the troops from Iraq within 18 months of taking office (that would have been around June of 2010). But after he was sworn in, President Obama has changed the target date for leaving Iraq as the end of 2011 (that's double his campaign promise). I don't see that anything can be accomplished by staying another 18 months, and I urge him to return to his campaign timetable.

Now it looks like he is backing up on another campaign promise. The Bush administration was one of the most secretive presidencies ever. It was as though they felt they couldn't trust the American people with even the most innocuous information. Candidate Obama promised to change that.

Barack Obama told the voters he would have a "transparent" administration. But the actions of the administration seem antything but transparent. The White House is refusing to give out any information contained in the White House Visitor Logs kept by the Secret Service.

msnbc.com has asked for the names of all White House visitors since January 20th. The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has filed a much narrower request. They have only asked for visits of coal company executives. The Obama administration has refused both requests.

The Secret Service told msnbc.com last week, "It is the government's position, that the vast majority, if not all, of the records ... are not agency records subject to the FOIA. Rather, these records are records governed by the Presidential Records Act" and "remain under the exclusive legal custody and control of the White Office and the Office of the Vice President. After the resolution of this litigation, we will respond further to your request if necessary."

But that is not true. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in 2007 and again this January, that the logs are the property of the Secret Service since they created and maintain them. The judge ruled the logs are public information, and therefore must be released when requested.

The Bush administration had appealed the judges decision, and now the Obama administration is pushing that same appeal. That's very disappointing behavior from a president who promised an open and accountable administration.

I have to agree with CREW attorney Anne L. Weismann, when she says, "We are deeply disappointed 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."

The White House belongs to the people of the United States, and they have a right to know who visits there -- whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat doesn't matter.