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(h/t David at VideoCafe.)

On This Week with George Stephanopoulus:

The Obama Administration is trying to engineer a soft-landing for the President's promise to close Guantanamo by January 22, 2010.

Friday morning White House officials told me that some detainees would still be in Gitmo after the deadline after this story broke in the Washington Post. And in our 'This Week' interview, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that "it's going to take a little longer" than promised to close the prison.

Here’s our full exchange:

STEPHANOPOULOS: A major story in "The Washington Post" suggesting that the president's deadline of January 22nd for closing Guantanamo will not be met. And White House officials tell me that at least some prisoners will still be in Guantanamo on January 22nd and beyond. How big a setback is that and how long will it take to finally close Guantanamo?

GATES: When the president elect met with his new national security team in Chicago on December 7th...

STEPHANOPOULOS: 2009.

GATES: ...last year, this issue was discussed, about closing Guantanamo and executive orders to do that and so on. And the question was, should we set a deadline? Should we pin ourselves down? I actually was one of those who said we should because I know enough from being around this town that if you don't put a deadline on something, you'll never move the bureaucracy. But I also said and then if we find we can't get it done by that time but we have a good plan, then you're in a position to say it's going to take us a little longer but we are moving in the direction of implementing the policy that the president set. And I think that's the position that we're in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's where we are. So the deadline of January 22nd will not be met?

GATES: It's going to be tough.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And -- and how many prisoners will be there on January 22nd, do you know?

GATES: I don't know the answer to that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it -- but, as you said, it's going to be tough and likely will not be met.

GATES: We'll see.

Wow. My system is having a hard time adjusting to good news out of the White House:

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to move swiftly to reverse executive orders regarding torture of terror suspects, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and other controversial security policies, sources close to his transition said, in dramatic gestures aimed at reversing President Bush’s accumulation of executive power.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he’s been informed that President Obama will support his proposed legislation to make public some opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the Bush Administration's most sweeping claims of executive power. Obama also has promised to limit President Bush's practice of using "signing statements" to amend legislation.

"Every day we get indications that they're serious about reversing the abuses of the Constitution," Feingold, a harsh Bush critic, told Politico. Feingold said Obama's staff told him to expect executive orders rapidly reversing Bush policies on the interrogation and detention of terror suspects, and on keeping the records of past presidents secret. He declined to be more specific.

"I don't know in what order or how fast" Obama’s executive orders could come, he said. "It'll be important that a couple of them be done immediately, and I think they will be, to show there's a strong break from the current policy."

Chris Lu, executive director of Obama’s transition team, told supporters in a conference call earlier this month that Obama’s aides have “started developing executive orders that the pres elect is considering –not only ones the President-elect will sign after January 20, but also ones we will want to repeal."

Bushsecrecy.org

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix...President Harry S. Truman

Harry Truman understood the importance of open government in a free society.

George W.Bush does not.

From the first days of his administration, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the government's hold on information and limit public scrutiny of its activities. Expansive assertions of executive privilege, restrictive views of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing use of national security classification, stonewalling in response to congressional requests for information - all these were evident even before the September 11 attacks. Since then, the clamps on information have only tightened.

Here, Public Citizen chronicles and documents the administration's obsession with secrecy, as well as the steps we, and others, are taking to fight it. By clicking on the links provided here, you can reach up-to-date summaries of each of the administration's major secrecy initiatives, with additional links from those summaries to key documents, such as executive orders, congressional materials, judicial decisions, and legal briefs filed by both sides in the court battles raging over these issues. We'll also provide links to other resources on the web, as well as information about how you can use the Freedom of Information Act to take on government secrecy yourself.

In the long run, we don't think Americans will put up with a government that operates on the principle of keeping them in ignorance. The more light we shine on these, the better. More

(Memo to Howard Kurtz )

Way to go, Barney. He stood up and schooled Rick Renzi (R-AZ) over his behavior. This nonsense about the NY Times is making the right wingers absolutely insane and is totally without merit.

Download | play -WMP Video-QT later (rough transcript)

Frank: I yield myself 10 seconds to point out yes, it's true, Ms. Pelosi was briefed in 2002 at the beginning of the program. She is not a fortuneteller.

Renzi: Whoa..

Frank: No, the gentleman wouldn't yield.

Renzi: {garbled}

Frank: Regular order! Regular order! I ask the gentleman be seated. I asked the gentleman when he mentioned me to yield. He declined to do so. For him to interrupt me without even asking for a yield is wholly outside the rules of the house and I ask he be instructed in them...

Renzi: {garbled}

Frank: I will yield to the gentleman exactly as he yielded to me. No.

The Speaker Pro Tempore: The gentleman from Arizona will suspend. The gentleman from Arizona, please suspend. please take a seat. The gentleman may proceed.

Frank: The gentlewoman from California, Ms. Pelosi was briefed at the outset. The other gentleman from California--as I was briefed- after it was about to be made public.

Rick Renzi (R-AZ) got this started, made a false claim: "Nancy Pelosi was properly informed. Ranking member of the Intelligence committee [Jane Harman] - properly informed. Harry Reid, properly informed."

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