Presidential Records and Executive Privilege

President Obama's first Executive Order yesterday was on Presidential Records. The most interesting part came in section 4 regarding Executive Privelege and states:

Sec. 4. Claim of Executive Privilege by Former President.

(a) Upon receipt of a claim of executive privilege by a living former President, the Archivist shall consult with the Attorney General (through the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel), the Counsel to the President, and such other executive agencies as the Archivist deems appropriate concerning the Archivist's determination as to whether to honor the former President's claim of privilege or instead to disclose the Presidential records notwithstanding the claim of privilege. Any determination under section 3 of this order that executive privilege shall not be invoked by the incumbent President shall not prejudice the Archivist's determination with respect to the former President's claim of privilege.

(b) In making the determination referred to in subsection (a) of this section, the Archivist shall abide by any instructions given him by the incumbent President or his designee unless otherwise directed by a final court order. The Archivist shall notify the incumbent and former Presidents of his determination at least 30 days prior to disclosure of the Presidential records, unless a shorter time period is required in the circumstances set forth in section 1270.44 of the NARA regulations. Copies of the notice for the incumbent President shall be delivered to the President (through the Counsel to the President) and the Attorney General (through the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel). The copy of the notice for the former President shall be delivered to the former President or his designated representative.

This is interesting becuase according to Nick Baumann's blog on Mother Jones, it forces "Bush to sue the National Archives if he doesn't like Obama's decisions on whether his many claims of executive privilege are justified."
How now brown cow?

Senate Panel Approves Geithner

Today, the Senate Finance Committee approved Obama's nominee for U.S. Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. His confirmation is now in the hands of the Senate, which may vote as early as this afternoon.

My bet is that Geithner will be voted in today with some grumblings from Senate Republicans, and rightly so. I'm not so sure this is the best guy for the job, especially because of his nuanced and ostensibly deceitful answers about not paying taxes. What was clear, at least to me, was that Geithner tried to commit tax evasion. To boot, this is the man that over saw the collapses of several NY financial institutions, including, Citigroup and AIG, and for the most part, capitalized on Paulson's plan to bail them out, none of which has benefitted the American people. So what again are we to be excited about? Surely there could have been better choices, but who?