Friedrich -Monterey Herald
John Dean Warns of Bush Secrecy
Sat Aug 21, 2004 01:39
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Posted on Fri, Aug. 20, 2004

John Dean warns of Bush secrecy

Watergate figure speaks in Seaside

By ALEX FRIEDRICH

Herald Staff Writer


The secrecy of the Bush administration was no reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but has been a hallmark of the president and can only be curbed by congressional oversight, a former Watergate figure said during a benefit dinner of Monterey County library supporters.

John Dean, who served as counsel to former President Richard Nixon during the early 1970s Watergate era, told the Foundation for Monterey County Free Libraries on Thursday that the Bush administration has muzzled the media and allowed Vice President Dick Cheney to make crucial decisions in private.

It's a smoky back-room style of governing -- which bests even that of Nixon -- that Dean said presents a danger to democracy, as he details in his recent New York Times best seller "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush."

He told foundation members, who met at the Embassy Suites in Seaside, that President Bush has exercised a "litany of secrecy" since 2000.

"It's obsessive," he said.

Dean served as Nixon's White House lawyer for 1,000 days. In 1973, he testified before a Senate committee, accusing the president of involvement in the Watergate burglaries and breaking the law in the coverup. Nixon eventually resigned.

In Dean's new book, he calls the Bush administration the most secretive in recent history -- even more so than Nixon's -- in its use of stonewalling, withholding of documents and intimidation of the news media.

The lack of openness and accountability, if allowed to continue, could cause scandals to erupt in a second Bush term, he wrote. They could involve, among others: the past business conduct of Bush and Cheney, the secret development of the national energy policy that possibly benefited campaign contributors and Cheney's stall in addressing terrorism -- possibly to the point of ignoring warnings.

Dean, who said he has been an independent for the past three decades, has said the book is nonpartisan -- that it quotes more Republicans than Democrats -- and is more about good government vs. bad government.

The feedback from Republicans -- including those on the hard right -- has been mostly positive, he said.

"They like it," he said. "I was dumbfounded."

Bush was secretive from the beginning, Dean told the audience, when he refused to talk much about his life before 40 or provide a full accounting of Cheney's health problems. Since then, he writes in his book, the two have refused to talk on a range of issues, such as how the nation's energy policy was formed.

While Bush chooses to remain ignorant of crucial maneuvering of his administration, Dean suggested, he allows Cheney to pull the strings from behind closed doors.

"I don't think we've ever had a president that has given his vice president the authority that Cheney has been given," he told the audience.

Part of the secrecy problem is lack of coverage by the mainstream media, he said. The Bush administration has blunted the news media's watchdog role more than any other by keeping it in the dark. Bush and Cheney hold few if any press conferences, often don't return phone calls and make sure reporters who have been critical of the administration are denied access.

Though Democrats have raised the issue of Bush administration secrecy, Dean said before the speech that it's not likely to be a campaign issue. Though secrecy is a topic in Washington, Dean said, most Americans don't watch politics closely and don't see the problem.

The solution in a Bush second term would be more congressional oversight, he said, which would be more likely if Democrats took back control of the House of Representatives.

When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, "they forgot they were a separate branch of government" and abandoned their role as monitors with election of a Republican president, he said.

In contrast, Dean said, even Congressional Democrats under former President Lyndon B. Johnson exercised oversight of the president.

afriedrich@montereyherald.com   .
 

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