Yet another broken promise

Well so much for the "new transparency" in government. This embrace of secrecy is all too familiar.

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

This is exactly what we voted against. And we already had this argument with Bush. He lost in court -- twice. Yet the Secret Service is denying requests for public information on the same damn grounds that the president needs to be able to have secret meetings that can't be divulged without compromising national security.

For crying out loud, then they should have their secret little tete-a-tete's outside of the White House. It's beyond nonsenical to suggest that anyone going into the White House that is of great interest to nefarious types wouldn't already be under some kind of surveillance, so the only people who won't know what's going on are ordinary citizens. And as Obama was so fond of reminding us during the campaign, it's the people's house. Not his.

This isn't change we can believe in. Hell, it's not even a change and all these little incidents are adding up. I'm beginning to wonder if Obama wants to be a one term president after all.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]