Vice President Dick Cheney must turn over his visitor logs:

A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney's office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election-season debate over lobbyists' White House access.

While researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, The Washington Post asked in June for two years of White House visitor logs. The Secret Service refused to process the request, which government attorneys called "a fishing expedition into the most sensitive details of the vice presidency."

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said Wednesday that, by the end of next week, the Secret Service must produce the records or at least identity them and justify why they are being withheld.

The Secret Service can still try to withhold the records but, in a written ruling Thursday, Urbina questioned the agency's primary argument — that the logs are protected by Cheney's right to executive privilege.

Cheney has insisted that while he is working in the public's White House, taking taxpayer money, he can do pretty much what he wants in total secrecy, including have secret meetings with his corporate ruling class colleagues without having to even reveal who they are.

In other words, he wants to be like Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Il -- the autarch who shall not be scrutinized.

This is something to watch. The Republican Culture of Corruption keeps bubbling to the top, and this bubble is big and mysterious and has been festering since 2001, and could reveal much not only about secret deals with oil companies but also why we invaded Iraq in the first place.

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