Impression of Concealment

Since last May, the General Accounting Office, which is Congress’ investigative arm, has been asking the White House for information about who helped Vice President Dick Cheney write the administration’s energy plan. Cheney and Co. have been stubborn beyond reason in their refusal, and Comptroller General David M. Walker may finally go to court this week to demand the information. Walker, a former Reagan administration official who was backed for his current job by Senate GOP leader Trent Lott, is making a principled argument for the public’s right to know.

The administration is trying to portray its standoff with Congress and Walker as protecting the powers of the presidency by maintaining separation of powers. The powers of the presidency were bound to expand after Sept. 11. But the requests for information about the energy task force were first lodged by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) in April, almost half a year before the war on terrorism began. As more emerges about energy giant Enron’s collapse and its political reach, the importance of a clear picture of how Cheney ran his operation increases.

Consider what is already known.

Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay met with Cheney April 17 and delivered a memo advocating specific policies. All told, Enron representatives met six times with the task force. According to a report issued by Waxman in January, no less than 17 policies in the White House energy plan were espoused by Enron or would have helped it. Lay also met with Clay Johnson, the White House personnel director, to lobby for nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. President Bush later appointed two Enron favorites.

The request of the GAO is limited and reasonable. Walker is not asking for transcripts. He simply wants to know who the energy commission met with and what the subject of discussion was. Of course, any information about White House contacts with energy industry officials may turn out to be harmless. The White House, though, may end up embarrassed by the extent of its ties to oil and gas interests. Better to face it now than to stonewall and keep the issue burning.

Cheney’s resistance is not limited to the energy plan meetings. He is on something of a personal crusade to roll back the gains for open government made during the Watergate era--when Cheney was chief of staff for President Gerald R. Ford. As Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War, when the Pentagon kept the press on as short a leash as possible, Cheney’s inclination to work beyond scrutiny grew stronger.

But as the Watergate abuses showed, government runs best in the open. In defying Congress and the GAO, Cheney shrouds the administration’s actions, and the public can only imagine the worst.