No Paper Trail
Submitted by madspawn on March 27, 2008 - 4:41pm.
Democratic politics

There's been a lot of talk about Hillary and her records. Well, Obama's office records of his time in the Illinois Senate are also under scrutiny by an organization called the Judicial Watch. According to The Hill:
The president of a prominent watchdog group said Wednesday that he believes Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) “intended to leave no paper trail” during his time in the Illinois Senate.
Judicial Watch, which has been seeking access to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) records from her time in the White House, argued Wednesday that the Illinois senator, who has criticized the former first lady for a lack of openness, has his own “records problem.”
“The more we learn about the Illinois Senator, the more obvious it becomes that he is anything but the ethically upright outsider he purports to be,” said Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch.
Weird, huh? So, not only do we have the infamous "present" votes, but his records seem to be incomplete... or maybe even purposefully missing?
In a statement, Fitton noted that his group has sought access to Obama’s records as a state senator and questioned whether the presidential candidate has been forthcoming with regard to what happened to those documents.
He said that “nobody knows where they are, if they exist at all” and claimed that “Obama’s story keeps changing.”
However, the Obama campaign said the senator’s records are available.
“All of Sen. Obama’s correspondence with state agencies and records of requests Obama made to them on behalf of his constituents are available to the public and have been accessed by our opponents and members of the news media,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt. “Illinois State senators have limited staff – Obama did not have a scheduler – and so no detailed record exists of all of his daily activities in Springfield.”
Fitton argues that Obama’s public accounts of what happened to his records do not mesh with information from the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State. He added that the Judicial Watch investigation “suggests” that the senator could have had his records archived in a way that would grant the public access to them.
“It appears that Obama never kept records of his time in the Illinois state legislature, or he discarded them,” Fitton stated. “Either way, he clearly intended to leave no paper trail.”
Things that make you go hmmmm.
Sorry I can't reply to no paper trail's initial post. I'm sure they do some good work, but you quote Judicial Watch??? Yikes...the most conservative watchdog in Washington - total republican smear unit that I would not trust to get it right on any democrat.
Texas has a part time State House and Senate too. The idea that you don't have permanent publicly accessible documents is just unheard of.
They do know about the Freedom of Information Act in Illinois, right?
You can't have access to records through the Freedom of Information Act if they've all been shredded... or were never kept to begin with.

This happens with all controversies he faces. And if he's the Dem nominee, it will be his undoing in the GE.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

This is another one to add to the list!!! He is all talk!!!!

...is what he is.
Aided and abetted by the RW machine and bought into by half of the Dems.
Amazing.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

He appears to be more like bush everyday...
It's so frustrating that none of this gets any play in the media. The pundits don't harp on it, the reporters don't report on it, and no one grills him about it during those rare press conferences. Why?

....to make him the nominee.
It's the VRWC 2008
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood of ideas in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

Do you have any links to the information you are providing in your great diary. I would like to help distribute this information, but without links, it won't be as effective.
Thanks.
"It does not take many words to tell the truth". Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

that support this particular "Hill" link article. I'm connected to a group of fine pro-Hillary diarists that are always looking for material just like yours. The more links, the more credibility (excluding links from the "other side", of course).
"It does not take many words to tell the truth". Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

what was posted on The Hill. There's a little more at the actual Judicial Watch site here.
I actually heard about this through a pro-Hillary group called Hillary Rapid Responders. They have an e-mail list that I'm subscribed to. I get at least one e-mail from them a day.
They send on lots of great talking points as well as ideas for letters to the editors, etc. Great talking points for blogs too. :-)
Wes Clark Democrats...let the Clinton campaign know who sent you

Nice to see someone call BS on him