It's Sunshine Week, so perhaps some enterprising White House reporter will ask press secretary Jay Carney why President Obama rewrote the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America.
The rewrite came in an April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructing the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved "White House equities."
That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the public.
Huh. That's not the scent of lilacs and spring morning dew. It kind of smells bad, in fact.
Please note that President Obama did this when he had majorities in both houses of Congress still in that early stage of puppy love where the president could get Congressional leaders to do anything for the president, while giggling like school girls over the fact that he talked to me!!! Eeeeehhh!!!!
So all this talk of how the president has to act because Republicans won't amend legislation to his liking (as if that is an excuse for exceeding his authority) is just a convenient excuse to ignore that he's long felt he could just do quasi-legislative changes at the stroke of a pen by calling up his agencies.
His own notions of hope and change were the only checks and balances on his power that our president recognized right from the start.
Tip to Instapundit.
