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Release White House Visitor Logs

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 28, 2007

When then-Gov. George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency in 2000, he promised a transparent White House and public access to information.

Yet during his presidency, Bush has created a culture of secrecy, going so far as to argue that visitor logs to the White House and the vice president's residence must remain a state secret.

Last week, however, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Secret Service to turn over the logs, sought through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The White House promptly challenged the order. The president should reconsider and end this sorry episode.

A nonpartisan group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, sought information in October 2006 on visits by nine religious leaders, including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. The White House refused to release the records.

The request came right before the 2006 election and in the midst of the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In May 2006 the president and Secret Service signed an agreement declaring that visitor logs are no longer open to public inspection.

The administration argues that visitor logs are presidential records, rather than Secret Service records subject to the Freedom of Information Act. It wants to keep the information private in the interest of receiving candid advice from guests.

But as Judge Royce Lambert observed, the logs do not describe the reason visitors come to the White House or what is said during meetings. Rather, the Secret Service uses the information collected to conduct background checks. Moreover, these records have long been used by journalists to track those seeking to influence the administration.

The public has an established right to the visitor logs, and attempts by the White House to keep them secret make it look like the administration has something to hide.

President Bush, who is but a temporary tenant of the people's house, should drop the appeal.

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