Josh Gerstein sums up Barack Obama’s massively disappointing record on secrecy at Politico, including this passage:
“Obama is the sixth administration that’s been in office since I’ve been doing Freedom of Information Act work. … It’s kind of shocking to me to say this, but of the six, this administration is the worst on FOIA issues. The worst. There’s just no question about it,” said Katherine Meyer, a Washington lawyer who’s been filing FOIA cases since 1978. “This administration is raising one barrier after another. … It’s gotten to the point where I’m stunned — I’m really stunned.”
David Sobel, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that “despite the positive rhetoric that has come from the White House and the attorney general, that guidance has not been translated into real world results in actual cases. … Basically, the reviews are terrible.”
This administration engages in more activity that skates just over the line when it comes to breaking the law. Give them credit, they are smart enough not to create real scandals, but in smaller ways they are more brazen than any other administration in my lifetime. FOIA requests would reveal a lot more of these small abuses of power. And of course the rampant cronyism and patronage machine.