Is Hillary Rodham Clinton sitting on documents from her days as first lady? That’s the insinuation Republican officials are making on the eve of the latest Democratic presidential debate. The Republican National Committee is circulating an e-mail message suggesting that the former first lady is being secretive in not releasing her White House records, and state Republican parties across the country are offering fake “Clinton library cards” to highlight the matter, which was first raised during the last Democratic debate.
Access to the files has emerged as a subject in the presidential campaign because Senator Clinton, a New York Democrat, has argued that her experience as first lady is one of her chief qualifications to be president.
But Richard J. Cox, a professor of library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh, says that delay in releasing White House records is an issue that goes beyond the current crop of presidential contenders. Mr. Cox, who writes about archival matters on his blog, Reading Archives, is no fan of the current system, which keeps all records from the public for five years after the president leaves office. Former presidents can elect to withhold documents that fall into several broad categories, such as those that touch on sensitive policy or personal matters, for up to 12 years. And an executive order issued by President Bush in 2001 gave ex-presidents even more discretion over releasing records.
Bill Clinton exercised the option to restrict certain records — although so did his predecessors, Mr. Cox says. And he notes that Mr. Clinton’s restrictions were somewhat less far-reaching that those of other former presidents. But he says he is disturbed by reports in Newsweek that suggest the former president sought to specifically limit records of communications with his wife, “unless routine in nature.”
There are currently 78 million pages of documents from the Clinton administration held by the National Archives at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., plus 20 million e-mail messages. Twenty-three Freedom of Information Act requests have been filled so far, and more than 300 open-records requests are pending.
Whatever happens with the current Clinton controversy, Mr. Cox argues, the problem won’t be solved until the power that former and sitting presidents have to restrict access to presidential materials is reduced.
“It will take an enlightened president to say, ‘We should stop building shrines to ourselves,’” Mr. Cox says, referring to presidential libraries, “and open up records to scholars and the public.”
