‘Indeed so secrecy-fixated is this White House that John Dean, Richard Nixon's White House counsel, was once quoted in the Daily Telegraph of London as saying, "Bush and Cheney are a throwback to the Nixon time. All government business is filtered through a political process at this White House, which is the most secretive ever to run the United States."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but when Nixon's consigliere calls you secretive, it's like Tony Soprano saying you have anger-management issues.

What's most important here is not that the vice president feels himself above the law, though he obviously does. But the larger issue is embodied in that line from the Declaration of Independence about government "by the consent of the governed." Like the public's right to know, that consent is in danger.

You see, people who are not informed cannot ask pertinent questions. They cannot demand accountability. They cannot give informed consent. They can only be led. Or, perhaps more accurately, herded. Sheep are herded. We all know what happens to them.’

The Secret's Out On Cheney