Obama Administration

In a nod toward transparency in government, President-elect Obama's transition team has set up a Web site, Your Seat at the Table, to track the many interest groups jostling for attention from the new administration, The New York Times reported.

In an effort to control their political message, both of the major parties' presidential campaigns have “sidelined” the press corps traveling with the candidates, Politico reports.  

As the Democratic presidential contest heats up, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has begun escalating attacks on Sen. Hillary Clinton's record on transparency in government.

On Wednesday, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe called the former first lady the "most secretive politician in America today."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has made transparency in government one of the regular themes of his presidential campaign, but his commitment to openness has come under scrutiny following press attempts to gain access to his private fund-raising events, Politico reports.

Following his win in Iowa, a select group of reporters were invited to attend several fund-risers and give an account of the events to the rest of the traveling press corps.

Although he has openly called on rival Hillary Clinton to release records from her time as first lady, Barack Obama said that when it comes to files from his days in the Illinois state Senate, there’s nothing to reveal.

“I don’t have _ I don’t maintain _ a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn’t have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records,” Obama said while on the campaign trail in Iowa.

During last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia, front-runner Hillary Clinton was grilled about public access to her records as first lady.

After answering a question from moderator Tim Russert on the issue, Barack Obama noted that if the New York senator  was going to use her period as first lady as evidence of her experience, she needed to open up those records from her White House years.

Obama: ...We have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history.