"The presumption ought to be that citizens ought to know as much as possible about decision making"

In my last entry, I praised Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for taking the revolutionary step of meeting with his critics. I also noted, as I have quite often, that secrecy is the enemy of democracy. Supporters of the president will be relieved to know that Gonzales' subversive gesture is apparently an anomaly.

In The Washington Post, there was a news article on how United Nations ambassador-designate John Bolton allegedly withheld crucial information on Iran's nuclear program. He withheld this critical information not from ordinary citizens but from Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell. Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control. The secretary of state was his boss.

Then in the same Washington Post, I read this editorial which quoted President Bush as saying, "The presumption ought to be that citizens ought to know as much as possible about decision making." Apparently, he said this with a straight face.

If the president really believes that ordinary citizens ought to be properly informed, then surely his own cabinet secretaries ought to be as well. Why is he nominating someone like Bolton as the country's number two diplomat? Even aside from his well-documented gratuitous UN-bashing, if he won't even properly inform his bosses, how will anyone at the UN believe anything he says?