Last April, I blogged the flap over the Bush administration's attempt to replace the Archivist of the United States, something that looks suspiciously like an attempt to have a hand-picked successor on hand next January, which when the GHW Bush administration papers become potentially open to public viewing. The Washington Post has an article on the issue, which includes a thumbnail of the proposed new Archivist's confirmation hearings. It has to be said that he doesn't sound so bad…although why the Bush people wanted to push out the incumbent early remains very mysterious.
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If you don’t think the fix is in, I have a small, but valuable bridge in Brooklyn to sell you
there’s also something about the 9// papers (the unclassifed ones) becoming available – or not – during the new term of the new archivist. I posted about it here.
John Dean has pointed out that documents from the Bush 41 administation are due for release and Bush 41 has issued an executive order that allows a variety of people to restrict release of documents from prior adminstrations. The executive order conflicts with the statute authorizing document release after twelve years. I’m not sure who has standing to force release of docments, but it seems the Archivist may be the primary positions with the authority to release documents and challenge the executive order.
Congress may be able to challenge restriction of documents, but it the challenge to Bush 41′s executive order may need to be generated by a Republican controlled committee. A Bush Archivist might be far less likely to challenge the executive order that allows not only Bush 41, but members of his administration and Bush family members to object to document release.