Ripeness Is All
The Bush Administration says this one is on the other guy.
“The White House is not currently reviewing any Clinton presidential records because none are ripe for White House review,” a spokesman for Mr. Bush, Trey Bohn, said yesterday.”
Bohn claims it’s Bill Clinton who’s the holdup for releasing his administration’s documents, but is silent on what they’ll do once the requests go to the White House.
Meanwhile they can enjoy the spectacle.
“All current requests for Clinton administration records are pending review by President Clinton’s designated representative. The White House can take no action on any of the requests until the Clinton representative has completed its review of the records relevant to each request and reached a decision on either authorizing their release or withholding them.”
The Clintonians have tried to lay the controversy on the White House.
And as titans clash, the National Archives either can’t or won’t say who has ’em:
“Archives officials have indicated that the presidential review process for all Clinton White House records released so far has averaged eight months. A spokeswoman for the archives, Miriam Kleiman, declined to discuss whether aides to Messrs. Clinton or Bush have been responsible for the delays.“The National Archives is not in a position to determine where the hold-up is,” Ms. Kleiman said. “The only information we can provide is that they are in the pipeline.”