There's another presidential appointment to keep your eye on, but don't look to the NYTimes to get any information about why you should care about who becomes the next archivist of the United States. The burden to do that falls to Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Felicia R. Lee in today's paper. You might think that with two reporters covering the story, they'd be able to get all the pertinent facts for us. But this is the NYTimes we're talking about. Famous now for the half-hearted attempt and confusing reference.
Ms. Stolberg and Ms. Less describe the job of the archivist as "an ordinarily low-profile job that includes overseeing the release of government documents, including presidential papers ". And they're sure to tell us that the man President Clinton nominated and who was unanimously approved by the senate, was a former governer and strong supporter of the Clinton campaign with experience in farming but not any in "history or stewardship of public documents". 'Politics as usual' is the gist of the story. Except that as BushCo is fond of saying, 9/11 changed everything.
From The History News Network Newsletter:
Though it is not widely known, in January 2005, the first batch of records (the mandatory 12 years of closure having passed) relating to the president's father's administration will be subject to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and could be opened. Another area of concern to presidential officials relates to the 9-11 Commission records. Because there is no mandatory 30-year closure rule (except for highly classified White House and Executive Department records and documents), all materials relating to the commission are scheduled to be transferred to the National Archives upon termination of the Commission later this year. These records could be made available to researchers and journalists as soon as they are processed by NARA.
That almost sounds important. That date - January 2005 - is certainly significant since Mr. Carlin had said that he would not step down before July 2005. Now he's leaving to pursue other interests and the White House wants Weinstein in. Call your senators to ask that a hold is put on the nomination, which would prevent it from going forward without debate. Also, you can read more about Weinstein at The Nation .
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