Fun With Classified Documents

I was way too busy at work yesterday to comment on this, but now that I've got the time, I'll note this article about Senator Richard Shelby doing his best impersonation of a sieve. Wingnuts were all put out a week or so ago about Sandy Berger's supposed pilfering of classified material from the 9/11 Commission Reading Room--except that, it turns out, he didn't do after all.

But didn't a certain Bill Frist engage in some loose and fast rule playing and rule breaking when it came to classified material and Richard Clarke? Gosh, if I recall...

Anyway, 90 percent--if not 99 percent--of material that is stamped "classified" is done so not for genuine purposes of national security, but for one reason only: politics. And it's been a bipartisan effort over the years, although FOIA and some of the 1970's reforms did in fact open government to an extent. But--one George W. Bush has, in his effort to "raise the tone," I guess, done his level best to close citizen access to government documents. Fitting.

Note: both the Shelby and Berger links are from George W. Bush Will You Please Go Now?