Obama's transparency: 'Photo sprays'

by Mark Silva

The toughest question posed at the president's news conference last night -- from our Washington Bureau's Christi Parsons -- drew one of the shortest answers.

The question was about "transparency,'' and what has happened to some of the president's promises to ensure it at the White House.

A citizen's group this week sued the White House over its refusal to release a list of healthcare executives who have visited the Whte House during the healthcare talks. The president said last night that the administration is providing those names -- but also dismissed some of their meetings there as mere "photo sprays'' which all could see.

(Photo sprays happen when the White House lets photographers into a meeting room for a few minutes to snap pictures, then ushers them out, also known as "photo-opps")

An inspector general at the Treasury Department also has faulted the agency for not compiling enough information about what banks are doing with all the bailout funds.

We've brought you those stories, from the Washington Bureau, linked above, here in the Swamp. See the question and answers about them above, courtesy of that C-SPAN which President Obama promised to make part of his transparency program, and read it below:

"During the campaign,'' the president was asked, "you promised that health-care negotiations would take place on C-SPAN. And that hasn't happened.

"And your administration recently turned down a request, from a watchdog group, seeking a list of health-care executives who have visited the White House to talk about health-care reform. Also the TARP inspector general recently said that your White House is withholding too much information on the bank bailouts.

"So my question for you is, are you fulfilling your promise of transparency in the White House?

"Well,'' the president replied, "on the list of health-care executives who visited us, most of the time, you guys have been in there taking pictures. So it hasn't been a secret.

"And my understanding is, we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives. But frankly these have mostly been at least photo sprays, where you could see who was participating.

"With respect to all the negotiations not being on C-SPAN,'' he said, "you will recall in this very room that our kickoff event was here, on C- SPAN. And at a certain point, you know, you start getting into all kinds of different meetings.

"Senate Finance is having a meeting,'' he said. "The House is having a meeting. If they want those to be on C-SPAN, then I would welcome it. But I don't think there are a lot of secrets going on in there.

"And the last question was with respect to TARP,'' he said. "Let me take a look at what exactly they say we have not provided. I think that we've provided much greater transparency than existed prior to our administration coming in. It is a big program. I don't know exactly what's been requested.

"I'll find out, and I will have an answer for you.''