I just spoke to Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government watchdog. She says she’s glad Barney Frank and other* liberal Democrats in the House are standing up to President Obama by opposing Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham’s bill that would exempt photos of detainee abuse from Freedom of Information Act requirements:
You can’t make piecemeal exemptions to the FOIA. It’s a slippery slope. You start with this and pretty soon there’s a new law every time someone doesn’t want to release something. In an era when we say we value government transparency and openness, there’s no place for this bill.
Let’s hope the House leadership can’t get Frank and the others to cave.
*Update/Correction: Frank switched his vote, but the Lieberman-Graham bill will not pass with the war supplemental.
