- "I have a duty to protect the executive branch from
legislative encroachment."
-
- WASHINGTON - The Bush
administration
has refused to tell Congress the names of business executives and others
who met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force before it proposed
a new energy policy.
-
- It has encouraged agencies to reject public requests
for documents under the Freedom of Information Act and is providing Justice
Department lawyers to defend rejections.
-
- It kept nearly all members of Congress in the dark about
a "shadow government" of 75 to 150 executive branch officials
living in underground bunkers at secret sites outside Washington in case
terrorists strike the nation's capital. Even House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
next in line to the presidency after Cheney, was only vaguely aware of
the emergency plan, aides say.
-
- For generations, it has been recognized that information
is power in
-
- Washington, and few have been as successful as President
Bush in holding tight to information and releasing it selectively. But
now his success has triggered a backlash in Congress, where lawmakers
complain
that the administration is withholding crucial information.
-
- The White House "is getting a little imperious about
not sharing any ideas with anybody," Senate Foreign Relations Chairman
Joseph Biden, D-Del., complains.
-
- "I don't buy that, frankly," Bush said at a
news conference Wednesday when a reporter asked about the gripes. "I
have a duty to protect the executive branch from legislative
encroachment."
-
- Bush's defiant words caused dismay on Capitol Hill, as
even GOP supporters warned that he risked fueling a confrontation.
-
- Using a disciplined management style and a bit of
old-fashioned
fear, Bush and his lieutenants are not just withholding classified secrets
from Congress. They're also exercising tight control over what
administration
officials can say and even which invitations to black-tie dinners staffers
can accept.
-
- Retribution is swift for those who violate White House
rules or betray secrets. Republican insiders estimate that at least four
people have lost administration jobs because they did not live up to the
White House code of conduct: Never disagree with Bush in public, and don't
talk about what you know without approval.
-
- It's not uncommon for chief executives to worry about
unauthorized leaks of national security information, internal policy
disputes
becoming public, or premature disclosures of presidential decisions.
Moreover,
Bush has cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as reason for even greater
secrecy " about Cheney's whereabouts or investigations of terrorist
threats.
-
- But Bush's desire to keep information close to the vest
predates Sept. 11. It is ingrained in his character, has shaped his
presidency,
was at the core of his management style during his six years as Texas
governor
and made him the watchdog for leaks in his father's administration.
-
- Bush's penchant for secrecy hasn't affected his
popularity.
A recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll puts his approval rating at 80%. But
the public can be fickle: The first President Bush went from Gulf War hero
to unemployment in less than two years. Some GOP loyalists worry that if
Bush is perceived as too secretive, his public support and clout with
Congress
will erode.
-
- Signs of rebellion already are brewing on Capitol Hill,
where Republicans and Democrats are openly griping. The Government
Accounting
Office, a non-partisan arm of Congress, has sued the White House to
disclose
details about Cheney's task force. A clash also looms over the White
House's
refusal to let Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge testify before
Congress.
-
- House Government Reform Chairman Dan Burton, an Indiana
Republican, angrily complained recently, "This is not a
monarchy."
He was upset that Bush blocked the committee's probe of alleged FBI abuses
in Boston. Burton warned of a potential "war" with the White
House unless attitudes change.
-
- The festering anger from both parties could prompt
lawmakers
to block some of the money Bush wants for anti-terrorism programs and his
domestic priorities.
-
- "There's a lot of arrogance of power here,"
says James Dyer, the Republican staff director of the House Appropriations
Committee. "If we are going to pay the bills, and if we're going to
defend their programs, we've got to be told what they're doing."
Appropriations
Chairman C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., plans to drive home that point today,
when White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels appears before the
panel.
-
- Complaints about Bush's penchant for secrecy also are
mounting beyond Capitol Hill. "We're very concerned about it,"
says Larry Klayman, executive director of Judicial Watch, a conservative
group that was a nemesis of Democrat Bill Clinton when he was president.
"This is a case where left and right agree. ... True conservatives
don't act this way.
-
- "We see an unprecedented secrecy in this White House
that ... we find very troubling," he says.
-
- Loyalty or retribution
-
- Ron Kaufman, White House political director for Bush's
father, says he admires the discipline the younger Bush has brought to
the White House.
-
- "It's the way they ran the campaign and it's the
way they ran his governorship" in Texas, he says. "This shouldn't
surprise anyone. This president is the most focused and disciplined man
I've ever met."
-
- For Bush, life is about loyalty, and anyone who discloses
a secret is disloyal. It's that simple, "us against them," those
close to him say. Of course, they won't say that on the record. Several
prominent Republicans were willing to talk about Bush's style of managing
only if assured that their names would not be used.
-
- The fear of retribution is well placed. Mike Parker,
a former Republican congressman from Mississippi, lost his job as head
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week. His offense? Being too
candid
before the Senate Budget Committee, administration officials say.
-
- Aside from saying under oath that Bush budget cuts will
have a "negative impact" on the corps, Parker told senators,
"After being in the administration and dealing with them, I still
don't have warm and fuzzy feelings for them."
-
- A furious Daniels sent a transcript of Parker's comments
to the White House. Parker was given 30 minutes to decide whether to resign
or be fired. He resigned.
-
- Daniels says Bush "makes certain that debate
happens,
and frequently in front of him, but ... once a decision's made, we move
on. We don't revisit, we don't second-guess, we don't carp."
-
- Other ousters were discreet. The officials quietly
resigned.
-
- "President Bush and Dick Cheney are really big on
secrecy," says a prominent Republican who talks to both. "They've
sent signals to everyone around them that this is the way they judge
people,
whether they can keep secrets. It all comes together to control
leaks."
-
- The reason: A leak about how a president is leaning whips
up competing interest-group pressure to sway the final decision. It
complicates
the president's job and is viewed as an act of disloyalty.
-
- It starts with Bush
-
- "Evidently, somebody in our government wanted to
show off to his family or her family," a piqued Bush said while
squinting
his eyes in disdain during a photo op at his Texas ranch Dec. 28. He had
just been asked to react to reports about an internal Justice Department
document on how to conduct military tribunals for terrorists.
-
- Even though he noted that the memo "was on the front
page of America's newspapers," he said he hadn't seen it. "The
leaked report is preliminary," he said in dismissing it. The anger
in his words sent a blunt message to every administration official: You
serve at the pleasure of the president, and the president is not
pleased.
-
- Bush developed a distaste for the self-serving news leaks
of Washington while his father " a former CIA director " spent
eight years as Ronald Reagan's vice president and four years in the Oval
Office himself. During those days, the son tried to keep an eye on those
his father suspected of disloyalty.
-
- When it was his turn at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Bush
demanded loyalty, which includes keeping secrets. He surrounded himself
with people who felt the same way " from Cheney to political
strategist
Karl Rove to counselor Karen Hughes, his longtime aide from Texas who is
seen as the chief White House enforcer.
-
- Hughes "really controls the message and the flow.
She's the 800-pound gorilla that everybody's afraid of," says a
veteran
GOP insider who has worked for several presidents. "She has people
fired and sends some pretty strong messages of no toleration" for
breaking ranks.
-
- Her control extends beyond just the message. White House
officials who have been invited to the White House Correspondents'
Association
black-tie dinner in May say they are required to notify Hughes' office.
If an official receives multiple invitations, which is common, she decides
which one he or she can accept. That level of involvement over who attends
the annual dinner appears to be unprecedented.
-
- The desire to control extends beyond those who work for
Bush. Even members of Congress have felt Bush's wrath.
-
- Last October, he abruptly announced that only eight
members
of Congress would be given intelligence briefings. That cut off dozens
of other lawmakers serving on oversight committees. At the time, it was
widely assumed Bush was upset with an article in The Washington Post in
which an intelligence official was quoted as telling lawmakers that there
was a virtual certainty of more terrorist strikes.
-
- It was actually a story in The Washington Times that
had upset Bush, administration officials say. That account contained
details
of the targets U.S. military planners were zeroing in on in
Afghanistan.
-
- A fuming Bush called the account an "act of
treason"
and vowed to cut back on the number of people in Congress given advance
notice about military actions. Eventually, the White House assured
lawmakers
that the constitutional obligation to keep them informed would be
honored.
-
- But today, the information flow remains restricted.
Republican
and Democratic members complain privately that many classified briefings
are short on detail. Often they learn of decisions to send U.S. military
units to places such as the Philippines or Yemen from the news media rather
than an administration emissary.
-
- "Congress, by and large, has been left to learn
about major war-related decisions through newspaper articles," Senate
Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., charged Tuesday in an opinion
piece in The New York Times. "Is it any wonder that members of
Congress
are beginning to question whether the administration is deliberately
leaving
Congress in the dark " or whether the administration is making major
policy decisions on the fly, without taking time for due consideration
or consultation?"
-
- Bush is as insistent that aides keep quiet about what
others say to him in confidence as he is about leaks of his own private
words.
-
- A White House official says one of presidential spokesman
Ari Fleischer's biggest mistakes, in Bush's eyes, occurred recently when
Fleischer told reporters what Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said
during a meeting with Bush. Fleischer was described as shaken by the
rebuke.
-
- Administration officials say Bush's fight for White House
confidentiality reflects not just a personal preference, but also a
constitutional
principle. They say he believes that the executive branch's right to
privacy
has been undermined in recent years by Clinton, who they say repeatedly
gave in to congressional demands for confidential executive branch
documents.
-
- Daniels says he has heard both Bush and Cheney "say
that they believe they are protecting future presidents as well from an
undue erosion of their ability to lead the country. It's a matter of
principle."
-
- Others challenge that view.
-
- Klayman, whose group has filed several lawsuits against
the administration, says he's fighting "a father-knows-best
attitude"
from the White House: "If they are doing it on principle, it's the
principle of self-preservation and opportunism."
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