Photo of sunbeams via StefanB.

The best disinfectant for government corruption and bad acts is a healthy dose of sunshine.  The public has a right to know if governmental leaders are lying to them — and why they are lying.  To that end, I say to Attorney General Mukasey — release the transcripts:

…Mukasey announced today that he’s appointing Chicago federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to the Attorney General’s advisory committee of U.S. attorneys.

Fitzgerald was on the committee from 2001 until 2005, but his appointment to it preceded his service as special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation.

Fitzgerald’s probing in that case led to the perjury conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby and earned the prosecutor the lasting enmity of the White House.

Gonzales, a former White House counsel, who as attorney general was sharply criticized for lack of independence from President Bush, did not re-appoint Fitzgerald to the advisory panel, which counsels the attorney general on law enforcement issues.

Mukasey still has a sticky call to make connected to the Plame case. He has to decide whether to allow Congress to have transcripts of investigators’ interviews with Bush, Cheney and former White House senior advisor Karl Rove….   (emphasis mine)

In an Administration whose signature response to oversight is to stonewall and dodge, Mukasey would do the public a great service by releasing the requested transcripts to Rep. Waxman’s government oversight committee. There are significant questions about the role that Dick Cheney played in selectively leaking a number of classified bits of information, among other things that have yet to be explained. 

As Judge Walton said at the conclusion of the Libby trial, "Evidence in this case overwhelmingly indicated Mr. Libby’s culpability."  You think Libby put his ass on the firing line, dragging his family along with him through the ringer, because it was a fun time? Me, neither. And, given that whole "cloud over the Vice President" business that still has yet to be resolved, I’d like to hear what Dick had to say for himself, along with why Karl Rove is still playing "hide the blackberry" to avoid detection and accountability. Just for starters.

As Dick Cheney and his pals are so fond of saying, if you don’t have anything to hide…unless, of course, they do have something to hide after all.

PS — Best of luck to Judge Thomas Hogan. who will move to semi-retirement in May of this year, stepping down from chief judgeship of the DC Circuit.  Judge Hogan approved our media passes for the Libby trial, and by all accounts has done a fantastic job with a circuit that is full of large egos, enormously important cases, and a whole lot of political wrangling — not the easiest of tasks, which he and Judge Walton made look effortless during the Libby circus.   I hope the step down is full of as much joy as he and his family can handle.(H/T to snowbird42.)