Whatever his other peculiarities, William Safire has always been good on privacy — having been wiretapped himself by Nixon he understands how intrusive it is to have the government recording you. Today he shows he's good on anti-privacy too, that is the freedom of information: Behind Closed Doors. Of course, working in a profession which depends on access to public information may have helped inform this view.
The Bush administration's position in the Cheney energy task force case is maximalist. If there were a term beyond “extreme” I'd use it. Deciding in its favor would tilt the separation of powers much further towards the White House; deciding against it only preserves the status quo.
