Confessions of a G33k

VT GOP wants Dean to open records

From The Burlington Free Press

Dean's sudden emergence as a top contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination has stirred considerable interest in the records that currently are available in the state archives.

Archivist Gregory Sanford said 195 cubic feet of documents contained in cardboard boxes can be reviewed by the public. Although the archives staff has not had enough time to go through all of the records, let alone catalog them, Sanford said it appears that the publicly available records consist primarily of correspondence.

Another 150 cubic feet of records is off limits, Sanford said, and even he doesn't know what they contain.

It is not unusual that governors ask that a portion of their records remain private for a number of years after their leave office. In Dean's case, it's the length of the seal -- a decade -- that's out of the ordinary.

Former Govs. Richard Snelling, a Republican, and Madeleine Kunin, a Democrat, agreed to six years worth of privacy before the full papers were opened to public scrutiny.

Shortly before he left office in January, Dean said he wanted a longer period because he already was running for the presidency.

"Well, there are future political considerations," he said at a news conference. "We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor."

Emphasis mine on the last quote. How about that for thinking ahead?

While I do consider the local Republicans to be a bit inept (*ahem* Dwyer), I don't find a move like this surprising at all. (Heck, do ya think this might've been motivated by someone from the national organization?)

Like I've said before, if Dean is going to run on his record as governor, he needs to be honest about it. I expect spin from both sides, but obfuscation, for something even as petty as this doesn't bode well. Even if he doesn't have anything incriminating within those hundred cubic feet of documents, he should at least open them because now if somebody plays this out, there's just going to be a hornest nest stirred up.

Dean and et al. needs to realize that this isn't like "deleting" email off of one's AOL account to avoid having them supoenaed by a disgruntled environmentalist.