It’s been 26 days since the Bush gang promised the public a “thorough report” on Jack Abramoff’s White House connections, but the president and his aides are no longer willing to talk about the subject. Who’s urging the White House to come clean? At this point, everyone.
Democrats want the White House to come clean.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urged President Bush Tuesday to “come clean” in next week’s State of the Union speech and acknowledge “the costs of Republican corruption.” […] “President Bush needs to quit stonewalling about his White House’s connection to corruption, and finally tell us how he’s going to reform Washington,” Reid said.
The media want the White House to come clean.
Here is what we don’t know about Jack Abramoff and the White House: whom he met with and what was discussed. Nor, if the White House sticks to its current position, will we learn that anytime soon. Press secretary Scott McClellan told the White House press corps: “If you’ve got some specific issue that you need to bring to my attention, fine. But what we’re not going to do is engage in a fishing expedition that has nothing to do with the investigation.” This is not a tenable position.
The public wants the White House to come clean.
A strong bipartisan majority of the public believes that President Bush should disclose contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and White House staff members despite administration assertions that media requests for details about those contacts amount to a “fishing expedition,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey found that three in four — 76 percent — of Americans said Bush should release lists of all meetings between aides and Abramoff…. Two in three Republicans joined with eight in 10 Democrats and political independents in favoring disclosure, according to the poll.
And now congressional Republicans want the White House to come clean.
Republican lawmakers said Sunday that President Bush should publicly disclose White House contacts with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who has pleaded guilty to felony charges in an influence-peddling case. Releasing the records would help eliminate suspicions that Abramoff, a top fundraiser for Bush’s re-election campaign, had undue influence on the White House, the Republicans said.
As it happens, these guys really didn’t hold back.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “I’m one who believes that more is better, in terms of disclosure and transparency. And so I’d be a big advocate for making records that are out there available.”
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), a leading House conservative, said all White House correspondence, phone calls, and meetings with Abramoff “absolutely” should be released. “I think this president is a man of unimpeachable integrity,” Pence said. “The American people have profound confidence in him. And as Abraham Lincoln said, ‘Give the people the facts and republican governance perhaps will be saved.'”
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said Bush should release the photos to avoid giving Democrats unnecessary political ammunition. “Get it out. Get it out. Come on,” Hagel said, adding the photos will eventually leak out anyway. “I mean, disclosure is the real issue. Whether it’s campaign finance issues, whether it’s ethics issues, whether it’s lobbying issues, disclosure is the best and most effective way to deal with all of these things.”
Your move, Karl.