By Editorial, Austin American-Statesman, June 8, 2007

8 Jun 2007 // Vice President Dick Cheney's newest attempt to shuck off accountability to the American people is the White House's maneuvering to keep secret the names of visitors to his taxpayer-paid housing and offices.

Cheney's lawyer has told the Secret Service that logs of visitors to his residence or White House office are covered by the Presidential Records Act and thus exempt from disclosure to the public. (The federal Freedom of Information Act does not apply to presidential records.)

In short, the American public, the White House says, is not entitled to know who attempts to influence Cheney. That might not matter so much if Cheney were powerless, but there's good reason to think he is one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history.

The White House's position was stated in a Sept. 13 letter that came to light recently when it was filed in court by the Justice Department, which is defending the government against a lawsuit by a group calling itself Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group wants to find out which conservative religious leaders recently have visited Cheney.

In May 2006, the White House signed a memorandum of understanding with the Secret Service that its visitor logs were presidential and therefore not covered by Freedom of Information Act. Now the White House and Cheney are trying to extend that exemption to the vice president's office.

The White House has told the court that the visitor logs should be kept confidential to preserve "the effective functioning of the vice presidency under the Constitution," and that releasing the information would "impinge on the ability of the (vice president) to gather information in confidence."

But no one is trying to force the vice president or his visitors to disclose what was said, only who the visitors were and who they met with at the vice president's office or residence. That's government business, and that makes it the public's business.

The group that filed the suit represents former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, former Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, who have sued Cheney and other Bush administration officials in connection with the disclosure of Plame's identity. (Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was sentenced this week to 30 months in prison for lying to federal prosecutors and a grand jury about that disclosure.)

The group also is trying to get White House visitor logs in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

The White House and vice president's real concern seems to be keeping control of what the public, especially critics, know about what they're doing, not protecting their ability to get candid advice or the national interest. The suggestion that the vice president can't fulfill his constitutional duties without keeping secret the names of people who visit him and his office isn't believable.

The fact that the president or vice president meets with certain people in a closed meeting does not suggest that they agree with those people's views — in fact, there may be sharp arguments between them. But the public is entitled to know who the president and vice president hear from personally.

We hope the courts in Washington will assert the public's right to know what their elected public servants are doing over the president's claim of privilege for himself and the vice president.