Dana Perino, the occasionally flustered White House spokeswoman, has at least been consistent in her line that the executive order governing classification procedures that’s gotten Dick Cheney into trouble lately also doesn’t apply to President Bush. Today The Los Angeles Times‘ Josh Meyer points out why Perino’s been saying that: the president’s office itself rebuffed the National Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) found that in 2005, ISOO investigators came to the West Wing to inspect senior Bush aides’ handling of classified information, only to be turned away by White House security officers. At the risk of a cheap shot, Saddam Hussein gave about as much access to UNMOVIC weapons inspectors in 2002 than Bush aides gave to the ISOO.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=180542