WH visitor logs show just how secretive “most transparent admin in history” really is

Where’s the left wing outrage? Via Viveca Novak and Fred Schulte of the Center for Public Integrity, writing at The PoliticoΒ (hat tip: Bryan Preston):

Similarly, the logs are missing the names of thousands of other visitors to the White House, including lobbyists, government employees, campaign donors, policy experts and friends of the first family, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.

The White House website proudly boasts of making available β€œover 1,000,000 records of everyone who’s come through the doors of the White House” via a searchable database.

Yet the Center’s analysis shows that the logs routinely omit or cloud key details about the identity of visitors, whom they met with and the nature of their visits. The logs even include the names of people who never showed up. These are critical gaps that raise doubts about the records’ historical accuracy and utility in helping the public understand White House operations, from social events to meetings on key policy debates.

Among the many weaknesses found by the Center’s review of the database:

β€’ The β€œevent” description in the logs is blank for more than 205,000 visits, including many that involved small meetings with the president and his key aides.

β€’ Five junior staff aides together received more than 4,440 visits. By contrast, then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, famed for his workaholic schedule, is listed as having fewer than 500 visits.

β€’ Less than 1 percent of the estimated 500,000 visits to the White House in Obama’s first eight months β€” a time when the new administration was bustling with activity β€” have been disclosed, according to the Center’s analysis.

β€’ The logs include names of people cleared by the Secret Service for White House entry who apparently never showed up. The Center analysis found more than 200,000 visits with no time of arrival, an indication that the person didn’t enter the White House, though there is no way to be certain. For instance, actor Ryan Gosling is listed at a West Wing event with members of his band, Dead Man’s Bones, in October 2009. But Gosling’s representative, Carolyn Govers, said the actor did not go.

β€’ Two-thirds of the more than 1 million names listed are people who passed through parts of the White House on guided group tours.

Read the whole thing to get even more insight into the hush-hush nature of this administration as exemplified by the WH visitors list.Β Β Β  Other visitors include AFL-CIO big wig Richard Trumka, who has visited the WH some 48 times, but on only 12 of the visits were the reasons why he was visiting recorded, according to CPI.Β  And let’s not forget about those meetings between Obama admin officials and lobbyists that are held in conference rooms just off of WH grounds, meetings that – obviously – don’t need to be recorded on the WH visitors list.

Remember, when this administration talks up its record on β€œtransparency”, what they really mean is how β€œtransparent” they are with the records of prior administrations, not their own.Β  The real β€œtransparency” here is, well, how transparent their sneaky little agenda is.

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