White House Gives On Transparency

This is very good news.

Early this morning, the White House took a huge step toward a more transparent government by announcing a historic new policy to voluntarily disclose White House visitor access records. Each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days will be made available online.

From the President’s statement:

For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside it. Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process.

Aside from a small group of appointments that cannot be disclosed because of national security imperatives or their necessarily confidential nature (such as a visit by a possible Supreme Court nominee), the record of every visitor who comes to the White House for an appointment, a tour, or to conduct business will be released. Read the full policy here.

The Administration has also agreed with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) to settle four pending cases requesting specific White House visitor access records, including those dating from the Bush administration (read the transmittal letter here). We have provided CREW with the records relating to their requests….

Credit where due. Executive branches are going to be naturally somewhat secretive and guarded, and so allowing the visitor logs to be released for the first time in history is a major victory for open government. In general, very good news, as the President makes good on a campaign promise of transparency.

Deadbeat

Laura Richardson hasn't paid her mortgage bills. She also hasn't paid her car bills, and she used a city-owned vehicle for months without authorization.

In October 2005, her 1999 four-door 740iL BMW had an odd vibration in the front, so she took it to Signal Hill Foreign Auto Service, according to Leo Labreche, the shop owner.

Mechanics there fixed the car and replaced some worn parts, but when Richardson picked up her vehicle, she said she didn't have the money to pay the $735 bill, Labreche said. Because Richardson was a council member, Labreche let her take the car, assuming that she was good for the money, he said.

"She had picked the car up and was going to come back and pay the bill, and she never did," Labreche said.

Labreche said he spent months leaving messages on Richardson's cell phone voice mail, then he got a collection agency involved, but still the bill went unpaid.

"I couldn't get through to her, and then when the collection agency couldn't do anything, I thought, `There's nothing I'm going to be able to do,"' Labreche said.

A month later, she apparently wrecked the front of the car, rendering it undrivable. She then abandoned the car at another auto-body shop.

The Press-Telegram then reports that one day after Richardson abandoned her wrecked BMW, she checked out a city-owned Toyota Prius "for her council business."

She returned the car - 30,000 miles later - after she had left the council.

This story has gotten the attention of the nonpartisan ethics watchdog CREW, who released a statement claiming that Richardson was a "deadbeat congresswoman." Hard to argue with that. And it looks like she's pulling strings to get the Sacramento house back and kick out the new owner.

Real estate investor James York bought Richardson's house in an upper middle-class neighborhood on May 7 for $388,000. He recorded the deed May 19. His crew has painted it, laid tile and landscaped the house, he said.

York said the lender, Washington Mutual, had contacted him to buy back the house and that he gave the bank a price. He said the next thing he knew, the lender filed a letter of rescission of the foreclosure sale June 2 with Sacramento County and asked him for the keys.

"They took the property back, and they didn't even send back the money," York said.

The investor says he plans to file a lawsuit by the end of the week against Washington Mutual and Richardson.

"It's clear what's happening is Ms. Richardson is abusing her political power and using it for her own political needs," he said. "You don't have to be smart to understand what's happening."

I've only gotten to know Sen. Jenny Oropeza after the special election (where Richardson beat her by waging a nasty, divisive campaign), but she's an excellent legislator, and I think her bad vote on the gaming compacts pales in comparison to the embarrassment of Richardson representing Democrats in California.

Shorter John Doolittle

WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

The list by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington names 18 Republicans and four Democrats.

Doolittle, whose connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff are the subject on a Justice Department investigation, said the listing was an underhanded attempt to attack him from a liberal Democrat organization funded by billionaire activist George Soros.

"I just really think it's unfair and wrong for an underhanded and vile organization like CREW, who disagrees with me because I'm a conservative Republican, to attack me on that," he said. "Because of the atmosphere right now, it's a very impactful thing."

Doolittle has said he has done nothing wrong and wants the Justice Department investigation to come to a conclusion to clear his name. With a new congressional election coming in November 2008, Doolittle is already facing a Democrat challenger who ran a surprisingly strong campaign against him in 2006.

There's the obligatory Soros reference, the dismissal of any criticism as partisan, but also the admission that CREW's list, which includes 4 Democrats along with 18 Republicans, is "impactful." That's because he can't argue with any of the findings so he attacks the source.

By the way, Auburn Journal, it's a DEMOCRATIC challenger. And his name is Charlie Brown. You can donate to him through the Calitics ActBlue page and then come down to one of our Q3 Quarterly events tonight.

And Gordon and Dana Make Three

Senator Smith and Rep. Rohrbacher (really?) become the latest to say it's time for my main man Abu G. to go, and Rohrbacher's statement makes a lot of sense (really?!?!?):

“Even for Republicans this is a warning sign … saying there needs to be a change,” said Rohrbacher. “Maybe the president should have an attorney general who is less a personal friend and more professional in his approach.”

I've no complimented Jonah Goldberg and Dana Rohrbacher in one week.

I will now plunge needles through my eyes.

There's another mini-scandal related to the Prosecutor Purge scandal, incidentally, and that is that many of the emails between the White House and the Justice Department were not using White House email addresses, which actually is a no-no:

One email, sent to Justice Department Chief of Staff D. Kyle Sampson from J. Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Political Director, uses an email account, SJennings@gwb43.com, on a server owned by the Republican National Committee. This raises serious questions about whether the White House was trying to deliberately evade its responsibilities under the PRA, which directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure.

A number of other emails from Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove’s former assistant Susan Ralston to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff document Ms. Ralston’s use of three outside domains: rnchq.com (used for the headquarters of the Republican National Committee), georgebush.com and aol.com. In many of these emails Ms. Ralston is communicating inside White House information to Mr. Abramoff in response to Mr. Abramoff’s efforts to broker deals for his clients and place specified individuals in positions within the administration.

CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. It appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.

If it's the Bush Administration, nothing can be done completely legally, so cut 'em some slack, jack!