[Mb-civic] Share the Facts on The War - David Broder - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Share the Facts on The War

By David S. Broder
Thursday, August 4, 2005; Page A23

The common theme of the controversies roiling the capital this summer is 
the contest over access to vital information. This is one of the classic 
points of contention between the executive and legislative branches, but 
the conflict is sharper than usual this year.

Senate Democrats blocked the confirmation of John Bolton as ambassador 
to the United Nations over the White House's refusal to supply the names 
of individuals whose security files he had examined in his previous 
State Department position. The impasse was finally broken this week when 
President Bush gave Bolton a recess appointment, allowing him to serve 
for the next 17 months without confirmation.

Now a second storm is blowing up over access to memos Supreme Court 
nominee John Roberts wrote when he was serving in the solicitor 
general's office of the Justice Department in the administration of 
George H.W. Bush. Democrats say those writings would illuminate his 
judicial philosophy, but the administration insists that divulging them 
would infringe on the confidentiality of exchanges between a lawyer and 
his client.

Important as these conflicts are, they may be less significant in the 
long run than the continuing tug of war over measurements of progress -- 
or lack of progress -- in Iraq. The whole country has a stake in this one.

<>As I wrote earlier, Congress, in a little-noted section of the defense 
spending bill passed this spring, had ordered Defense Secretary Donald 
Rumsfeld to deliver a detailed report by July 11 on a long list of 
measures gauging Iraq's economic and political stability, the extent of 
the insurgency, and the capacity of Iraqi forces to provide security for 
their own country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/03/AR2005080302012.html?nav=hcmodule 

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