Extremes again
Government should be watched, assuming a free society. When the government no longer has to ask permission to exercise power and the people do, it's not a free society any more. When government becomes as secretive as it has, the suspicion is that government isn't asking permission any more. We have had some pretty heavy handed government in the last 20 years or so. Very few really trust government or at best trust government to be corrupt. Hence the watchdogging mentality. If government would like to avoid this it could be more honest.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with government issuing a statement stating that after meeting with representitives (listed) from Big Oil, various enviromental lobbys (listed), and any other applicable special interest groups (listed), they have come up with an energy policy (stated), for these reasons (stated). It might engender some trust and possibly a decent policy. When they make decisions that shape the future of the entire country, it would be good to know why. If they won't say, then it is up to the citizenry to find out.
That's currently supposed to be done though oversight by our representitives. I would like to say that a candid and honest government would probably not have the same watchdogging going on, but I don't really remember one. I am fairly confident that a dishonest and secretive government is going to attact a lot of snoops and conspiricy theorists. My memory is good enough for that statement...
Oh, and having someone else do the dirty work for you is not a real good defense. So the concept of all those mini meenies doing dastardly deeds in spite of the best intentions of our exemplary, honest, and loyal representitives has probably been run through a horse.
