[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/23/charlie.wilson/art.wilson.gi.jpg caption=" Charlie Wilson, at the Los Angeles movie premiere with wife Barbara, loves the film about him."](CNN) - candidates saying they'll bring more openness and responsibility to the federal government.

But ask former Democratic Texas congressman Charlie Wilson about transparency, and he chuckles.

"You can't do everything transparently," Wilson told CNN in a phone interview, and he should know: his determination to fund Afghan rebels against the Soviet invasion was made into the book and movie "Charlie Wilson's War." (The DVD of the film, which starred Tom Hanks as Wilson, comes out Tuesday.) Wilson's effort was covert: He set about increasing funding for CIA operations in Afghanistan, helped convince disparate groups such as the Israelis and Saudis to cooperate, and did it all with almost no coverage in the press.

"This was opaque and it had to be opaque, and had it not been, it wouldn't have succeeded," he continues. "But to be opaque, it had to have bipartisan support. It had to have enthusiastic bipartisan support - but bipartisan support that didn't go to the press, and try to take credit."

FULL POST