(2003-12-02) Dean Sealed Records

I wonder how big a deal Howard Dean's sealed records will become? Using George W Bush as a justification for your behavior is both a weak moral argument and really bad strategy. Apparently this isn't a new issue. The battle over Dean's records began last year when three Vermont newspapers took him to court after being denied access to his official schedule. Reporters were trying to track Dean's out-of-state political trips. State lawyers argued that release of the schedule could jeopardize his safety and that the governor's office was not a public "agency" covered by state open-records law - two notions rejected by the Vermont Supreme Court... The sealed papers include Dean's correspondence with advisers on, among other matters, Vermont's "civil unions" law and a state agency that critics charged was used to grant tax credits to Dean's favored firms.