[Guest post by DRJ]

The LA Times reports President Barack Obama is keeping his promise to run the most transparent Administration in history:

“In a statement issued Friday from Camp David, Md., Obama said his administration would post information online each month detailing White House visitors during the prior three or four months.

“For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis,” Obama said, adding that he would make his “the most open and transparent administration in history, not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside.

“Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process.”

The decision was made after a federal judge ruled in favor of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a group that sued the Bush Administration claiming White House records of visits by conservative Christian leaders should be subject to FOIA requests. The group renewed its claim after Obama took office but “Obama’s staff originally refused to give up the records.” CREW threatened to sue the Obama Administration in July 2009 and a CREW blog post described the Obama Administration’s refusal to release health care policy visitor logs as a continuation of “one of the bad, anti-transparency, pro-secrecy approaches” of the Bush administration.

I have a feeling the court’s decision and CREW’s agreement to settle its lawsuits had more to do with the Obama Administration’s decision than a desire for transparency. Interestingly, the Obama Administration also agreed to turn over records of Bush era visitors and I expect to see more media interest in those logs than in Obama’s:

“The government initially refused to turn over these records, but now has agreed to produce them, as well as the Bush era records, as part of the settlement.”

There are exceptions to what the Obama Administration says it will release from its records, including visits by potential Supreme Court nominees, covert operatives (“White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs [said the] point of the exception is to ‘protect those whose lives you could endanger’ by revealing them”), personal visits to the Obama daughters, possibly visits on Air Force One and at Camp David, and any other information the White House decides not to release. However, “the White House will report the number of meetings it is holding back and release the visitors’ names ‘when it is more appropriate to do so.'”

Meanwhile, CREW is willing to forget the Obama Administration’s continued resistance to releasing visitor records and forgive its plan to selectively withhold future records. Instead CREW is pleased, apparently in part because the Obama Administration is good and the Bush Administration is bad:

“CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan praised the White House, stating, ‘The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise. The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration – by putting visitor records on the White House web site – will have the most open White House in history. Because visitor records will now be available online, CREW dismissed its lawsuits.’ Sloan continued, ‘Providing public access to visitor records is an important step in restoring transparency and accountability to our government. CREW is proud to have been part of this historic decision.’”

See how easy it is to deliver transparency in government? All it takes is one small step …

— DRJ