Open government needs open records

Presidential records belong to the public. Allowing former presidents — and most incredibly, their relatives — to seal records indefinitely is an affront to open government and a free and informed democracy.

Congress needs to call the bluff of the anonymous senator who placed a procedural hold on legislation to challenge and overturn a 2001 executive order by President Bush. The president is trying to hide records from public scrutiny, and he goes so far as to say a president's heirs retain control over the papers of a deceased president. Baloney. So says the House of Representatives by a vote of 333-93. A similar, lopsided vote was a good bet in the Senate until a mystery lawmaker stopped everything cold.

A hold signals an intent to filibuster a bill, which is an old, odd word applied to long-winded speeches employed to delay and obstruct passage of Senate legislation. A senator will take the floor and prattle endlessly to stall normal business. The tactic can be defeated, but as with overturning a veto, it takes big numbers. This legislation enjoys such support.

Smoke out the troublemaker — widely suspected to be Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma — and confront him and the president. Force them to defend the indefensible.

Congress has twice passed laws that made the point: The records belong to the public and to the review and judgment of history. Release of such records is already delayed for 12 years, and protections exist for privacy and national security. The president arbitrarily announced he had the authority to seal them forever.

That is not how open government works. Presidential records belong to the people in whose name the chief executive acts. His power is on loan from the governed. All the paperwork belongs to the people, too.