The Bush administration’s more egregious efforts to shield government records and proceedings in secrecy–most notably, Vice President Cheney’s energy task force records–have received ample attention from journalists. Clymer delves into some of the administration’s less publicized efforts to limit public disclosures, such as its attempts to undercut the Freedom of Information Act and classify more documents. Clymer traces Bush’s reluctance to release government records to the public back to his days as governor of Texas, and carefully lays out the case for why such secrecy raises grave problems, concluding that “secrecy does more harm than good.”
