Nothing to Hide

In politics, it is becoming the year of the open book. Incumbents and challengers alike are distributing their tax returns and net worth statements -- everything, including accounts of the egg money, it seems -- to prove their honesty. When one prospective Democratic challenger made public ten years' worth of tax returns, Republican Senator Henry Bellmon of Oklahoma went to the Internal Revenue Service bent on novel oneupmanship. Audit my returns for the last ten years, he proposed, and we'll announce the results.

The Oklahoma City IRS office turned Bellmon down for sound bureaucratic reasons: the agents were too busy audit ing current returns. Despite Bellmen's good intentions, the IRS decision was probably wise; certifying the Senator as clean could have set a precedent for an expanding search for seals of approval.

The Environmental Protection Agency might be called on to inspect candidates' home furnaces. Or the FBI would have to run a fingerprint check. The Pentagon would then attest to the validity of the candidate's Good Conduct Medal. All of this public reassurance, of course, to be financed by the public.

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