Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Idiots? (Tony Snow Edition)
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on executive privilege:
The Swamp - Chicago Tribune - Blogs: With credit to Olivier Knox of Agence France-Presse for a deft piece of document research, here is a copy of the column that Snow published in the Detroit News on March 29, 1998:
In order to exonerate the chief, aides have made fantastic claims.... The courts have said a president generally can shield communications that reveal fundamental deliberative processes. That includes communications between aides as they try to develop recommendations for their boss. But protected conversations involve predictable categories.... Jurists haven't found a constitutional writ for protecting damage-control meetings....
[The president] wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up.... One gets the impression that [the president's team] values its survival more than most people want justice and thus will delay without qualm. But as the clock ticks, the public's faith... will ebb away.... Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold: the rule of law...
