Did President Bush think nobody was looking when he effectively neutered a law seeking enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act?

If so, he underestimates open-government advocates, who notice stunts like that.

At issue is a law Bush just signed before the new year, establishing an ombudsman in the National Archives and Records Administration.

But in his budget request this week, the president proposed eliminating the new Office of Government Information Services and assigning its functions to the Justice Department.

That's like letting the fox guard the henhouse. Justice is the department that defends the federal government when its agencies want to withhold information. The FOIA requests, by contrast, seek to make information public.

Can you say "conflict of interest?"

Of course, Bush signed the Open Government Act of 2007 only under duress — after months of fighting and a bipartisan push from Congress, its supporters including many of the administration's allies.

Officials of the National Security Archive, which is suing the White House to force it to preserve e-mails relating to Iraq and the outing of CIA officer Valery Plame, argues that it's senseless to put the DOJ in the mediator's role.

They're right and, thankfully, they've got backup. Senate Democratic Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., should keep his vow to restore funds to the information office and install its ombudsman within the more appropriate archives agency, the first and last stop for FOIA requests.

The administration is already under the gun for politicizing the Justice Department, so this latest attempt surely couldn't pass unnoticed.

Nice try, Mr. President, but no dice.