The Court Comes Calling:Bush Visitors Outed?
Paper Play 
Yet another effort at Just-In-Time Bush accountability has advanced slightly, as a federal judge found against a White House scheme to hide visitors’ names. The Bush administration had the Secret Service pass its visitor records to the White House, then erase the agency’s records. Bush then claimed executive privilege and ran away tittering.
The Committee For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington entered the fight when it sought visitor records for leaders of the religious right 
 and for Stephen Payne, Bush brush-clearing buddy the Sunday Times of London taped offering administration access in return for Bush Library donations.
The court said:
1. The Secret Service can’t hide behind the White House – it still owns the records and the obligation to preserve them.
2. That the head of the National Archives failed to prevent the Secret Service from engaging in this farce, violating the Federal Records Act.
3. The Archivist of the United States is ordered to notify Congress of the records destruction and alert the Attorney General of the FRA violation.
Alan Weinstein was the Bush appointed Archivist staying very still during all this scheming, but he won’t be around for the cleanup. Weinstein has resigned for health reasons before Bush leaves office, leaving Adrienne Thomas, Acting Archivist of the United States to deal.
