Clinton vs. the GOP On Presidential Papers
THE CLAIMS

Thursday, November 1, 2007

To hear Republicans talk, any delay in releasing Clinton presidential records is the fault of the Clintons. Hillary Rodham Clinton, on the other hand, would have us believe that she and her husband have nothing to do with the release of their own records. So, who is telling the truth?

THE FACTS

Both sides are being disingenuous and omitting facts that are inconvenient to their own argument. Because of cumbersome declassification procedures introduced by President Bush, there are now huge delays in processing Freedom of Information Act requests at all presidential libraries. But the Clintons are taking advantage of a clause in a November 2001 Bush order that permits former presidents to take virtually as much time as they want to review FOIA requests.

According to National Archives officials, 26,000 pages of Clinton presidential records are being held for release after being submitted to Clinton lawyer Bruce Lindsey for review. The records have been screened and processed by Archives officials under FOIA, but they cannot be released to the public until Lindsey, as President Clinton's designated representative, signs off on them.

Lindsey did not respond to telephone calls. An associate, who asked not to be named, said that he processed 4,000 of 26,000 outstanding pages last week. The associate said that Lindsey had to go through the documents one by one at the presidential library in Arkansas but that he is "just one person" and cannot delegate the work. He blamed any delays on the new bureaucratic procedures that Bush ordered.

After Lindsey approves the release, the documents will go to the White House for a final review. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the Bush administration has approved the release of all records received from Clinton's office.

Jay Carson, a Clinton campaign spokesman, said that the former president had "consistently been an advocate for releasing his presidential records as quickly as possible" and that he had opposed the Bush administration order that placed new restrictions on their release.

Just how much these documents will tell us is another matter. They represent a mere drop in an ocean of presidential memos, e-mails and telephone transcripts that will take decades to process. An additional 10 million documents have become the subject of nearly 300 recent FOIA requests still waiting to be processed by the National Archives.

According to Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit group that monitors declassification procedures, delays in processing FOIA requests have mounted steadily during the seven years of the Bush presidency. In 2001, the Ronald Reagan presidential library was taking 16 to 18 months to process a FOIA request. It now takes 6 1/2 years. According to the National Archives, the current backlog for processing FOIA requests to the George H.W. Bush presidential library is 4 1/2 years.

Blanton praised Bill Clinton for releasing "more secret documents than all previous presidents put together." He said that across-the-board declassification orders during the Clinton administration and new restrictions on declassification under Bush have overwhelmed the system. Before the 2001 Bush order, the National Archives could automatically release records on its own after 30 days, provided that no former president or government agency objected.

"The process is really daunting," said Susan Cooper, spokeswoman for the Archives. "Every FOIA request requires a huge amount of work. A lot of these requests are fishing expeditions, requiring us to look at millions and millions of pages. Once we have vetted everything for classified material, it then goes to the former president's representative, and then the current president. It is really cumbersome."

THE PINOCCHIO TEST

Nobody comes off very well on this one. Republicans lack credibility when they criticize the Clintons for dragging their feet on the release of presidential records. The 2001 Bush executive order reversed many of the gains made during the Clinton years on access to government archives and the release of previously secret information. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton should not pretend she is just an innocent bystander.

Two Pinocchios for both Clinton and the Republican National Committee.