Well, just had to keep with the Star Wars spirit in battling these crazies Christine Gregoire and Tom Carr on open gov't. Previous posts of mine on this subject are HERE.

Just like with the C-SPAN archive being unearthed - THIS of Vice President Cheney is the example that comes to mind - 2001 quotes from then-Attorney General Chris Gregoire are just as bad.  Here's what she said - before she was anointed CEO of Washington State Gov't, appointed a staunch advocate of non-disclosure of public records and stashed public records of potential board & commission appointees from view*:

“The bottom line is that people are entitled to pretty much any document that comes to my mind,” said state Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

She said the state’s public-disclosure laws were designed to make Washington’s government one of the most open in the nation, and she was disappointed by the audit’s findings that some agencies were not following them.

Withholding documents builds skepticism, Gregoire said, and makes people believe government is “hiding something.” “When (citizens) are denied unjustly, they feel completely disenfranchised from government,” she said. “They lose trust.”

Gregoire said agencies should err on the side of full disclosure, meaning if they’re in doubt as to whether something should be released, they should release it.

But what often happens is that no one in the agency — or at least no one at the front office — knows anything about public-disclosure laws, Gregoire said. Her office, and the state auditor’s office, have been trying to help teach local government officials how they should treat public records, but turnover in local agencies often brings in new employees unfamiliar with the law.

. . .

Not all officials were as responsive when confronted about their agency’s denial. Some said they just didn’t have enough people or were too busy to comply with the law.

“I’m sure they’re understaffed,” Gregoire said. “And it’s resource-intense and costly. I understand that. But you know what? That’s not an exemption in the law.”

There you go. Thanks Open Government Blog!

*Under my real name, I have applied to the Skagit Valley College Board of Trustees.  If my application - sans address - was made public, no problem.