Goldberg and Guthrie

I would tend to agree that Dean should release the records. However, we now know that any document, no matter how inconsequential, would be used by Republicans during a Dean presidency to personally destroy him. If a single document suggested even the possibility that Dean may have done something illegal as governor (even if he had, say, lost money on a land deal while governor), a full scale investigation into Dean's life would begin. Everyone close to Dean would receive subpoenas, in the hope of digging up other scandals or in the hope of catching a witness in a lie, even a lie completely unrelated to the investigation. Dean would be forced to defend this investigation even while fighting the war of terror, and many good men and women would avoid working in a Dean administration.

Those are the rules these days. If I was running for office, I'm not sure I would ever turn over a single document about my life, absent a court order.

// posted by Guthrie @ 12/29/2003 08:57:00 AM