The unexpected balance of the Secret Cheney Energy Task Force of Doom actually renders Cheney's stonewalling on the task force's composition all the more egregious. It was one thing to believe Cheney was jealously guarding the roll call listing a really embarrassing confab of cartoonish plutocrats and Captain Planet villains. That, at least, made a sort of political sense. But in truth, Cheney was absorbing the bad press and public skepticism because he's truly committed to an unbelievably broad conception of presidential privilege and executive branch secrecy -- even when transparency will cost him nothing and be politically exculpatory. In its way, that's actually much scarier.
