Clinton`s First Lady Records Locked Up

[GaryC 7]

By Peter Nicholas

August 14, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cites her experience as a compelling reason voters should make her president, but nearly 2 million pages of documents covering her White House years are locked up in a building here, obscuring a large swath of her record as first lady.

Clinton's calendars, appointment logs and memos are stored at her husband's presidential library, in the custody of federal archivists who do not expect them to be released until after the 2008 presidential election. ...

[E]ven in the healthcare documents, at least 1,000 pages involving her work has been censored by archives staff because they include confidential advice and must be kept secret under a federal law called the Presidential Records Act. Political consultants said that if Hillary Clinton's records were made public, rivals would mine them for scraps of information that might rattle her campaign. ...

Asked how long it might be before Hillary Clinton's records are released, the library's chief archivist said it could take years. ...

Not fast enough, in the view of some who have been waiting. A conservative watchdog group called Judicial Watch filed suit against the National Archives last month, demanding the release of Hillary Clinton's diaries, telephone logs, daily planners and schedules. ... In the most recent suit, Judicial Watch said it had submitted its request more than a year ago and had received nothing, save for confirmation that the library possessed "a substantial volume" of such papers. ...

[A]dvocates for open records said that had it made savvier use of technology, the Clinton library could be moving more quickly. ...

"There's no reason why a load of a few hundred FOIA requests should absorb 11 full-time pople perpetually," Blanton said, referring to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act.

What records that have been made public offer tantalizing details about Hillary Clinton's White House years. One memo reveals details about the "war room" for the healthcare plan. Aides wrote of the need for secrecy, but also presented Hillary Clinton with arguments she could make that the process of drawing up a healthcare plan was "the most open in the history of the federal government."

A 1993 memo discussed a plan to create reports on members of Congress, tracking their positions on healthcare. The files would log when members met with Hillary Clinton, how they voted on key bills, and under a category called "influence" whom they consulted for advice. ...

About 75,000 pages of Rosalynn Carter's records are publicly available, including scheduling and social office files. Both the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush libraries also said that some records covering former first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush were open.

The healthcare papers that have been released contain gaps when it comes to the part played by Hillary Clinton. A number of records involving her have been kept secret because they include confidential advice between presidential aides. Among the withheld documents are memos about meetings between Hillary Clinton and Democratic Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph R. Biden Jr. now her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Other records kept from public view include a 1993 memo to the first lady entitled "positioning ourselves on healthcare," and another from that year called "public portrayal of the Medicare program."

http://www.kxmb.com/News/Nation/152540.asp

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I think there's a difference from keeping your political enemies from thwarting your chances in an election and obstructing an investigation.

[GaryC 7]

I think there's a difference from keeping your political enemies from thwarting your chances in an election and obstructing an investigation.

Do these things strike a memory, Rose Law firm billing records, Vince Foster?

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Hillary ... is ... good.

Repeat that until you believe it.