His highfalutin rationale is that the White House must "preserve the principle" of getting "unvarnished advice from any source."

Translated, "unvarnished advice" means a corporate wish list and "any source" is the wealthy white guys who gave us big campaign contributions.

The public has a right to hear the "unvarnished" advice of the vice president's private-sector colleagues.

Mr. Cheney says that doing so would hinder his ability to get unvarnished advice from industry.

We believe it is important for the president to receive unvarnished advice, and this decision supports that.

The White House says it wants to ensure that it can continue to receive "unvarnished" advice.

He has said he wants to "protect the ability of the president and the vice president to get unvarnished advice from any source we want."

The accounting office, however, has not asked that he disclose the "unvarnished advice" - only the names of those who provided it.

But Mr. Ellis's clients say his unvarnished advice is not unwelcome.

The Bush administration hailed the ruling as an endorsement of the president's right to "receive unvarnished advice."