From today's NY Times:
Questioned on the ABC News program "Good Morning America" about his handling of the papers, Dr. Dean tried to turn the issue back on President Bush, who originally sent his own papers from his years as governor of Texas to his father's presidential library.
"I'll unseal mine if he will unseal all of his," said Dr. Dean, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Why stoop to the lowest common denominator? This really baffles me...
As a matter of fact, it's the same refrain we've heard from Dean and his supporters on a number of issues. Particularly, Dean's Vietnam deferment. The common response is something along the lines of, "well Bush didn't serve, so what's the big deal?"
Well, we shouldn't be using Bush as an escape hatch for tough questions and issues. This is another reason why we should be rallying around candidates like Clark and Kerry. Nominating Clark or Kerry would absolutely make this issue moot, not to mention the fact that we can continue to hammer away at Bush on this potent issue. In a sense we will be asking, do you want a President who plays dress-up soldier or do you want the real deal?
I find Dean's refusal to unseal his official papers while Governor of Vermont unseemly and two-faced. As he candidly admitted, for "future political considerations. ... We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time." Oh great. And we're the party that's supposed to be hammering away at Bush for excessive secrecy? Yet another issue that Dean really won't be able to attack Bush for...
According to the NY Times, Judicial Watch is about to launch a lawsuit to open the records.
I don't necessarily think that there is anything damaging in there. I don't doubt that there is something embarrassing in there, but he should get it out in the air immediately to avoid worse embarrassment later on down the road.