Pee-Wee's Playhouse: The Secret word Is "Former"

The transparent Obama Presidency unfolding before us, when compared to the Wagnerian eight years of the former Bush Presidency, appears to be almost as much fun, and certainly as hopeful, as the now defunct kids’ TV program, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”

Although the program was ostensibly for kids, I was not the only adult who enjoyed watching it… as evidenced by loud screams throughout Saturday whenever my friends or I used the current “Secret Word.” Remember?

At the beginning of each show, viewers were told the day's "Secret Word" and were instructed to "scream real loud" every time a character on the show said it. The word was always used continuously throughout the episode, and Pee-wee always said it right before he got onto his scooter at the end of the show.

Hey kids… we have a new Secret Word: “former.”

President Obama prefaced the Presidential Orders he signed yesterday by remarking that his administration valued transparency, and would endeavor to leave the light on when it came to freedom of information. Layered between closing Gitmo and the Cabinet pay-raise freeze, he addressed the issue of the Presidential Records Act, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that administers it. Claiming (and I’m paraphrasing, because I can’t find the actual text of his remarks online) that just because an administration could legally withhold information doesn’t mean that it should, he defined the manner in which Presidential records… of the incumbent and “former” President… would be made available.

In Pee-wee’s Playouse, everyone screamed “former.”

Although the actual text of this Day-One proclamation is so densely worded in legalese as to be almost indecipherable, when combined with President Obama’s remarks it seems to indicate that Dubyah’s presidential records will be more accessible now than during his administration. Not that this is a wormhole through which prosecution may be introduced. If, for instance, the United Nations requested information it could use to strengthen a war crimes case, under Section 5, paragraph c, the proclamation states: “This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”

However, for historians and others who seek greater understanding of the arcane inner workings of the Bush administration, this new Executive Order redefining the Presidential Records Act could be a beacon of enlightening information.

Of course, those who make use of it may also find that, in the day-to-day record of his former Presidency, Dubyah conducted himself in much the same manner as Pee-wee sitting in the arms of Chairry for a hug.

I said “former.” Scream real loud, everybody!