NYC Letter: The Cellophane Administration, Part I

Day 180 of CHOPE

(A) Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. ... My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use.

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(B) Because I firmly believe with Justice Brandeis that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I know that restoring transparency is not only the surest way to achieve results, but also to earn back that trust in government without which we cannot deliver the changes the American people sent us here to make.

Mr. Obama,
bragging on his cellophane administration
(A) MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS
OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
WASHINGTON January 21, 2009 (White House)
(B) WASHINGTON January 28, 2009 (White House)

Government you can see through.

'PUT NOTHING IN WRITING,' BROWNER TOLD AUTO EXECS
ON SECRET WHITE HOUSE CAFE TALKS

July 8, 2009 (Washington Examiner) - Carol Browner, former Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs "to put nothing in writing, ever" regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a congressional investigation of Browner's conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, that Browner "intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards."

Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions, so instructing participants in a policy negotation concerning a major federal policy change could be viewed as a criminal act.

TRANSPARENCY CONSISTENT WITH A POLICY
OF COVERING THE ADMINISTRATION'S ASS
Nothing To See. Move Along.

When there is no physical record, you avoid destroying information through "inattention", as Ms. Browner learned while tidying up her tenure with the Clinton administration.

EPA IN CONTEMPT FOR DESTROYING FILES

WASHINGTON July 24, 2003 (WaPo) - A federal judge yesterday held the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for violating his court order by destroying computer hard drives and deleting e-mails of the agency's top officials in the final days of the Clinton administration and beyond.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that agency officials -- through a mixture of ignorance and "egregious" inattention -- failed to comply with his January 2001 restraining order that the agency preserve and protect its records concerning environmental rules written in the final months before President Bill Clinton was to leave office.

... Then-EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner had her computer hard drive destroyed on the same day the order was issued, the judge found, and deputy administrator W. Michael McCabe deleted e-mails in the days right after. Then general counsel Gary S. Guzy did not alert top officials or staff about the order, nor did the U.S. Attorney's Office, though it was handling the case.

The AP picks up the story:

Browner had testified she asked a technician to delete her computer files the same day Lamberth ordered them preserved.

The former EPA administrator said she usually didn't use her computer for work or e-mail, hadn't been notified about the court order, and had just wanted to remove some computer games her son had installed on her work computer.*

CHOPE.

Sshhh.

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* We wonder why Ms Browner didn't use a government-issued computer for her government work -- did she not do much work? More mystifying, how is it her son had administrative (to install) and recreational access to a government computer belonging to a cabinet secretary?