Where Secrecy Starts, Accountability Often Ends

WHERE SECRECY STARTS, ACCOUNTABILITY OFTEN ENDS -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2008)

(Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, recent proceedings in this House served one and only one valuable public purpose--Hopefully, this totally unproductive exercise will ensure that the Democratic leadership never again yields to demands that the public business of this people's House be conducted in secret.

Linking secrecy and political power is a dangerous recipe. Accountability often ends where secrecy begins.

Yes, there are always those whose self-importance grows when they participate in mysterious hocus-pocus, who insist that their judgment is superior to ordinary mortals because they possess confidential information not available to mere citizens. Rarely is that true. It was not true before the costly and troubling invasion of Iraq, and it is not true now.

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