“The General Accounting Office plans to file a lawsuit this week if the White House doesn’t provide information about Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy industry executives,” Newsday is reporting.

“The suit, which would seek to force Cheney to provide details about his energy task force, would be the first legal action of its kind between the legislative and executive branches of government.

The ultimatum comes as lawmakers seek information about the influence Enron Corp. and other companies had on the White House’s energy plan last year.”

The White House for months has refused to provide the GAO with the details it wants on grounds that it would hurt presidents’ ability to seek confidential policy advice.

‘There are important principles at stake in ensuring that the president and vice president can continue to receive unvarnished advice necessary for good decision-making,’ White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. ‘We always understood this may end up in the courts, and we’re prepared to stand on the constitutional principles.’

[…] The Sierra Club last week sued Cheney’s energy task force in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeking disclosure of the same information that the GAO and Congress want. That suit, which alleges a violation of the law that requires the White House to disclose information about committee meetings, asks the court to order the administration to give a ‘full accounting’ of which corporate officials participated in drafting the national energy policy announced in May.

Democrats and environmentalists claim the administration’s proposed policy heavily favors fossil fuels. The White House last week denied the plan contained special favors for Enron or any energy company.

I’m not sure where I stand on all this business with Cheney just yet. On the one hand, the disclosure everyone’s calling for seems eminently reasonable, especially in light of Enron’s sudden and stunning collapse; on the other hand, this administration has consistently followed its convictions on matters of internal policy — and it could very well be that Cheney’s refusal to disclose in this instance really is — as the White House is claiming it to be — a principled refusal to undermine the President’s recourse to private policy advice.

It’s worth remembering also that this fight began before Enron’s demise, and that both Cheney and his detractors have remained doggedly committed to their pre-collapse positions with regard to disclosure of the names of policy-meeting participants. The news here is not Cheney’s stance — but rather is the threat of an unprecedented lawsuit by the legislature against the executive branch of the government.