Past & Present

For now the courts are siding with the National Archive, historians, and a watchdog group in a legal case to compel Vice President Dick Cheney to publicly preserve his papers for the sake of research. It is more important in Cheney’s case to preserve his records for posterity because his influence within the Bush White House has been greater (far greater?) than the influence of any other vice presidents over their respective administrations. At least, so I am told. But I have to plead quilty to ignorance of the potency, or in most cases even the names, of most vice presidents in history.

A lawsuit was filed this month by many historians and a group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington out of fear that Cheney would destroy his papers rather than follow a 1978 law (spawn of Watergate) compelling documents of a presidency to be preserved. I can see grounds for this fear, since this vice president has spurned access and shown contempt for the spirit of openness during his tenure. The deliberations he presided over regarded energy policy in the first Bush term is an example of this, because Cheney fought to the end to keep those deliberations, involving energy industry leaders, secret. Cheney’s staff has also begun to assert that he is legally a part of the legislative branch (presiding over the Senate) rather than executive branch, suggesting that they would claim the presidential records law of 1978 shouldn’t apply to Cheney. 

A U.S. District Judge agreed enough with the merit of the suit this week to issue a temporary injunction against destroying any Cheney papers.