Yesterday, we talked about Howard Dean’s decision to hide his gubernatorial records from public view and his admission that this was done for political considerations. Today we see reports that the Dean campaign is still trying to figure out what in the world to do about this up-and-coming controversy.
At first, I was a little confused by media reports. The Washington Post ran a story with a headline that read, “Dean Records May Remain Sealed.” Then I saw the New York Times, which ran the headline, “Dean Says He’s Now Considering Unsealing Vermont Files.” Well, which is it? Sealed or unsealed?
It sounds like the media reports are confused because Dean and his campaign are unsure what to do next. Reading over the articles, it sounds as if Dean doesn’t want the headache of appearing to be hiding his records, but he also doesn’t want to have his Dem rivals and the White House combing through every word he ever wrote as governor, either.
“We’re talking about trying to be accommodating,” Dean told reporters yesterday. “We have no commitment to do anything other than what we’ve done right now.” In a perfect example of the less-than-straight talk I’ve seen too often from Dean, he added that “transparency is important” but then turned around and said “executive privilege is a serious issue.”
(I particularly enjoyed parsing the phrase “we’re talking about trying to be accommodating.” That’s classic. They’re not actually trying to be accommodating, they’re “talking about” trying to be accommodating. Funny stuff.)
Better yet, Dean was also distancing himself from his earlier explanation of his motivations. About a year ago, after negotiating the deal to seal his records, Dean told Vermont Public Radio, “We didn’t want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time.” Asked to expand on this candid comment to reporters yesterday, Dean said, “I wasn’t really being very serious about it.”
Ultimately, however, this controversy about Dean’s propensity for secrecy may be far more interesting that the actual contents of the files. He mentioned yesterday that the gubernatorial papers include correspondence between his office and other government agencies.
“Honest to God truth is I don’t know what’s in there,” Dean said.
I certainly believe him. Dean was governor for 11 years and had an active term in Vermont. I’m sure Dean has no idea if he wrote an email or a memo in 1994 that may have embarrassing information about his agenda, political ideas, strategy, etc. Maybe yes, maybe no.
But as long as there’s the perception of secrecy, Dean will be viewed as having something to hide. Dean may have a point about Bush attempts to keep his gubernatorial records secret, but as I mentioned yesterday, that’s setting too low a standard for his campaign.
Moreover, Dean’s Dem rivals aren’t going to let this issue go, and indeed, have no reason to. The candidates from Congress have their congressional records open to public scrutiny and Wesley Clark took the initiative early on his campaign to release all of his military records to the media and the public.
Until Dean does the same, he’ll have some explaining to do.