Of course, there are cases when a president needs to be able to call someone and say, "Look Nancy, I need your honest advice here. What do you think I should do about XYZ?" I don't think anyone has a problem with a president getting honest advice like that.

I think the refusal of Bush to disclose more about the workings of the [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html|Energy Task Force] is bad because it's not just private advice by one or a very few people, it's a group specially convened to create a policy. Just as people got upset with Hillary's [link|http://www.nlpc.org/ew/01-1hctf.htm|health care meetings] because many thought there was too little transparency, people are upset with these secret policy meetings.

I don't know where the line should be drawn, but as a general policy it's hard to go wrong with "Sunshine is the best disinfectant".

Why is one of the reforms being pushed in earmarks the requirement to list who is pushing the legislation? Because transparency is best. The same thing goes for the Executive Branch.

Cheers,
Scott.