Why be able to seal anything at all?  I mean, in Dean's case it's like - 'ooooh, Molson's cow got loose again.'  Gadzooks, imagine the uproar.  If you're a publically elected official all that stuff ought to be right up on the table.  Except maybe stuff that would put undercover operatives at risk. (You wouldn't believe the lengths the mad cow inspectors go to up here.) 

I read that Kissinger has his stuff sealed for like 50 years.  Most of the people who worked for him, my Dad included, won't be around by the time they're unsealed. Yet so much stuff that used to be classified, is no longer.  An example would be the abandoned NORAD radar installation in the Northeast Kingdom, or Operation Snowball that my Dad worked on - running guys through Thailand and Cambodia to intercept munitions on the Ho Chi Minh trail before they got to Viet Nam. 

If politicians weren't able to hide what was politically inexpedient for them, perhaps we'd get a more representative government.   Dean seems to represent this imaginary reform party - but how truthfully? Even if elected, how effective could he be?  He alienates 'the established' Democrats he needs to court.  Perhaps I'm being too cynical - but how could he exert any kind of control with a house and/or a senate run by the Grand Old Boy Party?

 'National Security' under the guise of military operations allows publically elected officials to take military actions without public recourse.  GW - George Washington - was a guerilla fighter - I wonder what he would think of all this.