George Rebane

Yesterday, with remarkably little fanfare, the Administration issued its Open Government Directive over the signature of OMB director Peter Orszag.  Mr. Orszag said, “The American people know best what their government should do for them. It’s fitting that our open government directive has been significantly shaped by the collective wisdom of the American people.”  Indeed.

I guess we can now expect a totally different face of the White House, and that from a President who has installed more ideologically extreme and extra-constitutional czars serving concurrently to implement his will than any President before him.  These guys and gals don’t even have to answer your phone call, let alone tell you what they’re doing.  Almost all of the Cabinet officers can be or have been replaced by two-by-fours with happy faces drawn on them.  They are permanently installed in the White House cabinet conference room.

At whitehouse.gov you can read the full press release (here).  However, the careful reader will note that the fiefdoms (nascent empires?) of the czars are not part of our newly opened government.  The rest of the established departments and agencies will at least get new ‘take a number’ dispensers in their entry halls.  

But given the ‘hurry up, don’t read it, just pass it’ policy we have witnessed so far, this new open government initiative will be welcomed by all – well, at least by the Republican members of Congress.

(Hat tip to my spy in the nation’s capitol for the heads up.)

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”  Patrick Henry