The goal is "Get Bush!". The content of the papers, and of the meetings whose minutes they are, is utterly irrelevant.
If the papers and meeting minutes are utterly irrelevant (and there's nothing in them) - then why not release them?
If the papers and meeting minutes have something in them - then they're not utterly irrevant - are they?
I don't disagree that there's a "Get Bush!" attitude....but I find it humorous that you're outraged by it. It's not like this is the first time that someone's hounded a President looking for things that might get them.
If he turns over the papers now, the reaction will be divided, about half and half: "These aren't the real papers! They were destroyed!" versus "This really does implicate him if you read it correctly!"
and if he released the papers immediately, there wouldn't be an issue, would there?
Let's face, he's brought this upon himself.
So there is no downside to his holding on forever. And he does have a point: the President (and Vice President) need advice. Some of that advice will come from people with a chicken in whatever fight is going on, because they're the ones most motivated to gather information on the subject. This and similar demands, if acceded to, will have the effect of foreclosing that information source forever; the result will be that anyone who knows anything about the subject is absolutely forbidden to offer advice. I thought we were against the PHB decision-making process here.
Sorry...but demanding disclosure of who's advising someone does not equal forbidding people from offering advice.
If that were true - campaign disclosure laws would prevent candidates from getting any cash at all. (And everyone knows candidates are getting lots of cash right now.)