With the inaugurationn upon us, I hope it will be a time to get past the paranoia of the Bush Administration to an era of more openness. Just last Friday the Bush administration submitted papers argued that a federal court has no authority to require the offices of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council to preserve all of their email.
Bush left behind vast gaps in the most sensitive White House email records. These records, which some estimate as millions of emails which, in some cases, cover entire days, could help us understand how we got involved in the Iraq War and our current economic crisis.
It is hard to imagine that one of the last acts of the Bush Administration was to block the preservation of critical email records.
President Obama has an opportunity to usher in a new era. If he can't undo the damage of deleted emails from the past, he can ensure that no more emails will be hidden in the future. Instead of being subject to a political process, emails can be treated as real records and subject to the same rules. For example, after an appropriate period for national security, emails can be released to the National Archives.
I am as excited as many people about a new era that President Obama can usher in. Open government is an important step.
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