Presidential Secrecy

So, Alberto Gonzalez is out, but Congress is back — and so are the questions about the executive privilege that the Bush White House has asserted with such extraordinary determination.

At the heart of that asserted privilege and power is secrecy. Secrecy about wiretapping, about torture, about politics and the Justice Department, about the vice president's office, about maybe millions of missing White House e-mails.

What do Congress and the American people have a right to know? Hearings are coming back. Subpoenas are ready to fly.

This hour On Point: the battle lines over presidential power and secrecy in Washington.

Guests:

Rebecca Carr, national correspondent, Cox Newspapers

Ted Gup, journalist, professor at Case Western Reserve University, and author of "Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life";
David Barron, professor at Harvard Law School, advisor to the Justice Department under Bill Clinton and to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the most recent Supreme Court confirmations;
Viet Dinh, former Assistant Attorney General under George W. Bush, key author of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, principal at Bancroft Associates, and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.