Hey, you never know. Even though Montana's delegate votes don't appear necessary for McCain to clinch the Republican nomination, he may still need us by Election Day.
At any rate, Clinton and Obama's upcoming visit brings with it the rare opportunity to scrutinize two-thirds of the leading candidates up close. And since news organizations across Montana and the nation are currently celebrating Sunshine Week, this seems as good a time as any to take a closer look at what the candidates have to say about open government - and to compare their words to their deeds.
As the folks in charge of Sunshine Week have pointed out, Clinton has proposed several ways of enhancing transparency at the federal level, including stronger shields for whistleblowers.
“I believe in an open, transparent government that is accountable to the people,” the Democratic senator from New York wrote in the Sunshine Week survey. “Excessive government secrecy harms democratic governance and can weaken our system of checks and balances by shielding officials from oversight and inviting misconduct or error.
“To me, openness and accountability are not platitudes - they are essential elements of our democracy.”
But while her proposed reforms certainly sound good, they don't quite mesh with some of her actions - or rather, inactions. For instance, Clinton still hasn't provided her most recent tax returns. Even though most Democratic presidential candidates in the past have released tax records well in advance of the primaries, Clinton doesn't think she'll have hers ready for public review until, oh, maybe April 15 - at the earliest. Of course, by then the nominee will be all but locked up.
Until Tuesday, she also stalled on the release of other records having to do with her time as the nation's former First Lady - mostly having to do with her daily schedule. And her campaign finance disclosures have been less than complete, with nearly $11 million dollars still undisclosed, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
McCain has also made a big show of his support for open government, especially when it comes to earmarks and lobbying. His Web site quotes him as saying, and we agree, that: “A democratic government operates best in the disinfecting light of the public eye. Ethics and transparency are not election year buzz words; they are the obligations of democracy and the duties of honorable public service.”
We were also happy to learn that the Republican from Arizona supports the release of certain reports from the Congressional Research Service. However, according to the people behind Sunshine Week, McCain hasn't been nearly as supportive of the effort to declassify records from the Vietnam War. In fact, he's spoken in favor of continued classification. And he, like Clinton, still refuses to release his income tax returns.
Obama, on the other hand, provided his tax information months ago. Copies of his 2006 return are posted all over the Internet, and therefore available for widespread public scrutiny and criticism.
So it's telling that the Democratic senator from Illinois has repeatedly said he would like more government information available through online databases. He has even gone so far as to suggest that congressional legislation should be available for public review and comment online for at least five days before it is signed into law, according to the Sunshine Week campaign.
That suggestion is part of Obama's promise, made during a speech he gave in October 2007, to “turn the page on a growing empire of classified information, and restore the balance we've lost between the necessarily secret and the necessity of openness in a democratic society by creating a new National Declassification Center.”
Obama backed this position by co-sponsoring federal legislation that allows people to review some government contracts and grants online at USAspending.gov. He also helped Illinois pass a bill demanding that all closed-door meetings conducted by public agencies be recorded by either video or audio means.
Yet Obama, too, hasn't been forthcoming with some records. Oddly, he hasn't been able to produce a good chunk of information concerning his activities in the Illinois Senate.
And contrary to the widespread perception that journalists are fawning over him, some reporters have complained that Obama seems to have very little time for them. Howard Kurtz, a staff writer for the Washington Post, wrote that Obama “often goes days without taking questions from national reporters, and when he does, the sessions can be slapdash affairs.”
Politicians are known for making a lot of promises as they attempt to rake in as many election-year votes as possible. But it's not enough just to make a promise. Our elected officials also have to keep them.
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