An Unmemorable FDR Quote

FDR: Not a Full-Disclosure Kind of Guy

As long as I am on the subject of Andrew Sullivan's blog--and it is a great blog, don't get me wrong--I have to take exception to another item today. He quotes Franklin Delano Roosevelt saying as follows:

"Your government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us." George W., he concludes, is no FDR.

Pu-lease! FDR was notorious for not coming clean with the public. Historians marvel at how he deliberately misrepresented his views on entering the European war. Good thing, too! He was 100% right to do that. But all this "government keeping nothing from you" stuff, sorry, was just a lot of baloney on FDR's part.