In a column that appears in today’s New York Times titled “The Billary Road to Republican Victory,” Frank Rich addresses - and elevates - the ongoing debate about the disclosure of donor lists for presidential libararies.  Once thought to be a tired and futile discussion, Tim Russert, Barack Obama and others have made donations to the Clinton Foundation a 2008 presidential campaign issue.

For fundraising purposes, current law treats presidential libraries like any other charity or nonprofit group. Unlike in a political campaign, there are no caps on donations, no mandatory disclosure and no ban on corporations and foreigners.

However, Texas Senator John Cornyn and Obama have co-sponsored a bill that would require disclosure of any donation to a presidential libary above $200.  A similar bill has already passed the House.

Questions surrounding donations to presidential libraries found their way onto the front pages when it was determined that Marc Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, gave $450,000 to the Clinton Foundation.  Rich, a fugitive financier, was pardoned by Clinton prior to leaving office.

I remember when fundraising began for the Library.  At that time, donors were publicly asked to participate in small sums.  They were given the option to purchase a brick, a bench, a tree, so on and so forth.

In an effort to build momentum for a broader, international fundraising effort that would generate large donations in order to construct and endow the immaculate and expensive facility, lots of people had to be brought into the mix.  In exchange for their participation, their names would be housed inside the Clinton Library on a searchable database.

In an effort to honor the commitment to those small donors  who were told they could view their names, the Foundation installed a computer kiosk in the library during the week of the November 2004 opening.

But, in what turned out to be a surprise, the kiosk also listed the names of major donors - some of whom had been promised that their names would not be public. The kiosk was quickly removed.

A quick Google search uncovered this story from New York Sun reporter Josh Gerstein from 2004.  In the article Gerstein notes, “Information about the donors is available to the public on a single touch-screen computer mounted on a wall on the third floor of the recently opened library.”  Quoting sources inside the Clinton Foundation, he also reported, “Eventually, most who have contributed $100,000 or more will be listed on a wall in the museum’s lobby.”

To date, the donor wall, which was scheduled to be on the south wall as one rides up the escalators to the Library’s orientation theatre, is still blank.  There is a printed book available at the services desk where visitors can check the locations of their bricks. The names of bench donors are insribed on a plaque attached to each bench.  But no publicly available record -  on a wall, in a book, or on a searchable database - is available for those donors who have no issue with their names being disclosed.

Now, four years later, both Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton are having to answer questions about these very matters.

As for the computer kiosk Gerstein referenced, it remains hidden from public view.  And the Cornyn-Obama bill sits idle in the United States Senate, yet to be considered by the members.