White House ‘e-mail mystery deepens.’
White House ‘e-mail mystery deepens.’
ABC’s The Blotter reports:
The White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails.
The company was responsible for reviewing and archiving White House e-mails, a White House official told congressional staff in May, according to a letter yesterday from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Congressional investigators asked then for the name of the company and “have repeatedly requested” the information since then, according to Waxman. […]
According to the White House, at least five million e-mails were not properly archived and may be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate law states that communications relating to official activity in the offices of the president and vice president are owned by the American public and cannot be destroyed.
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Surprise, surprise!
August 31st, 2007 at 3:47 pmGood thing the troops aren’t able to read this. Could prove to lower morale.
Impeach. They leave no other option.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:48 pmLet me guess–executive privilege?
August 31st, 2007 at 3:49 pm#1 You typed the words right off my fingers!!
August 31st, 2007 at 3:49 pmThis is the property of all citizens of the United States of America. It’s time to force this issue. Long and loud.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:50 pmThe name of the private company is ChimpCo.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pmAT&T
August 31st, 2007 at 3:54 pmOK, so reality says impeachment will never fly because the repugnicans will squash it, and nothing else will get done in the mean time… But what about a coup? Or maybe we of the proletariat can have a little uprising and take back our government?
Seriously, can you believe the arrogance of these bastards? And what did we learn today, class?
August 31st, 2007 at 3:55 pmI just know that all the conservatives who blasted Hillary Clinton for the missing Rose Law Firm billing records will be equally outraged about the missing White House e-mails!
August 31st, 2007 at 3:55 pmI would be glad to offer my services at recovering the lost e-mail. My guess is that the current sysadmins are all partisan hacks and have no actual experience at recovering lost e-mail.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pmOne name comes to mind: Rosemary Woods.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pmThe president could use some punishment, along with the 150,000+ treasonous pimples serving or having served in Iraq.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pmWhat fine loyal corporation would be so careless? And probably on a no-bid contract no less…? I struggle to think…Blackwater? Bechtel? Rove’s consulting firm? Wilkes’ co.? Guiliani’s security consulting firm? Some pal of Jack A? An Iraq Planning Group spin-off? The usual suspects are endless.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:57 pmImpeach. They leave no other option.
Comment by hellinabucket — August 31, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
Public hanging?
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pm#13 maybe the same group that cannot “find” who did massive stock sell offs prior to 9/11. Or where the money went. Amazing how information just gets lost.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pmNationalim is dead.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pmWell well. It looks like it is high time for Reid or Schumer or Feinstein to step in and offer to give up these investigations if Bush will…PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be nice to them! PLEEEEEEEEEEZE. Make this whole thing go away.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pmGreat point missmolly.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pmAlready sent off an email to my rep.
Dear Rep. Manzullo,
Please let me and the other people you represent you position on the 5 million emails that the White House has neglected to properly archive. It’s my understanding that this is a direct violation of the Presidential Records Act. This govt. is for all of the people and not one party. What are you doing to ensure this?
I would very much like a response. I would rather some public reply as in the Northwest Herald but any response on this subject would be welcome.
I’ll gladly share the response. Previous responses have been canned.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:02 pmInteresting. And if I understand government contracting correctly, institutional contractors are not subject to the Presidential Records Act, FOIA, Hatch Act, and other laws that official government employees have to follow. So if the entire eop.gov domain were to be, say, installed, owned, and operated by employees of a “private contractor,” it’s possible for all White House email records to not technically be “official government business.”
August 31st, 2007 at 4:04 pmComment by missmolly — August 31, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
And the Jedi mind-trick that erased the name of the company from their memories!
Maul, Siddius, and Lieberman, LLC?
August 31st, 2007 at 4:05 pmSadly, with Manzullo, it’s party first and country second. I am sure he will find some legal loophole to confirm (once again) that IOKIYAR.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:06 pmDuring Watergate. Nixon’s secretary erased a few minutes of tape and all hell broke loose.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:07 pmHow many minutes do 5 million email communications comprise?
Secret to Forcing Compliance With Subpoenas
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/26276
August 31st, 2007 at 4:09 pmComment by TheToonguy — August 31, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
I know, but I will not stop pointing it out. I’m putting together the mulitple questions I’ve had for him over the past year with his responses. Some aren’t even close to the topic I sent out.
I should have read my latest email though. Gramatical and spelling errors galore.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pmHow many email archiving companies could there be out there that handle this volume of work? Surely some crafty reporter could come up with a list of likelies.
And since they did such shoddy work, they’ll be returning the monies they were paid to perform this work for the American people, right?
And now another thought strikes me. There is no private company. That’s why they won’t release a name.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pmConyers WANTS Impeachment Proponents to Come to His Office
“I want you to know that I have no reticence, no reluctance, no hesitation to use the tool of impeachment … whenever I feel that it is appropriate,” Conyers said. “I only wish that I could be moved by a lot of people coming to my office.”
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/26299
August 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pmThis is just Republican nonsense-as-usual. Open the heavy curtains and clear this mess out!
August 31st, 2007 at 4:12 pmtoasterhead, that is not true. Hatch act, of course, FOIA, yes, but if members of the Presidential Staff use it for communications, it’s under the Presidential Records Act. Archiving processes are clealry defined.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:12 pmThat door (an obvious one) was shut when they wrote the act.
Secret to Forcing Compliance With Subpoenas
What options does Congress have?
1. Keep issuing subpoenas. Hope. Pray. Whine. Threaten. (This is the current strategy. For this and/or other reasons, Congress has the support of 18% of the nation.)
2. Attempt to hold individuals in contempt of Congress through the court system, with the only certain result being the wasting of many months on the process. (And we know Congress Members don’t like to do anything that takes that long, since they keep telling us they don’t have time for impeachment.)
3. Use a little-known procedure called inherent contempt to send the Sergeant at Arms to actually arrest people and lock them up for trial on Capitol Hill. (Most Congress Members have never even heard of this. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman recently had to be told by constituents what it was and how it works. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has threatened to use it but not done so. Given the spine shortage on the Hill, this seems very unlikely to happen.)
4. Pull out the third article of impeachment passed by the House Judiciary Committee against Richard Nixon in 1974, the one charging him with refusing to comply with subpoenas, change a few words, and introduce new articles of impeachment against Rice, Cheney, and Bush.
Option #4 would not require that you believe the impeachments would succeed or that a trial in the Senate would result in conviction. It would only require that you desire people to comply with subpoenas.
This would accomplish a couple of very interesting things as well. Congress Members frequently tell their constituents that they cannot impeach Cheney or Bush because they don’t have solid evidence or time to dig it up. But Cheney and Bush have INDISPUTABLY refused to comply with subpoenas, which is established by precedent as an impeachable offense.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/26276
August 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pmAT&T
Comment by Raven — August 31, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
I wonder. Pings are blocked on eop.gov, but the domain nameservers point to sprintlink.net. So I’m guessing Sprint Nextel.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pmThey were “lost” accidentally on purpose. What better way to cover your illegal deeds than to “lose” the e-mails involved in the illegality. This alone is grounds for impeachment.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pmThis is GW’s idea of bringing honor back to the White House.
Worst President ever. All who support him, take a bow. You’ve helped damage this country in ways our enemy’s could never achieve.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:14 pmbush: “The Dog ate my homework.”
August 31st, 2007 at 4:15 pm#33 AMEN !
August 31st, 2007 at 4:15 pmSo instead of an 18 1/2 minute gap, we have 18,500 missing emails. Wonderful.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:16 pmDumb question: Why would any reasonable executive refuse to identify the company that they contracted with (and the company that subsequently lost their emails ) ???????
*) There is no company
*) There is a company but they are worried that someone in that company might sing.
*) The company is a front for the RNC
.
.
OK. I warned you it was a dumb question.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:17 pmThat door (an obvious one) was shut when they wrote the act.
Comment by pbg — August 31, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
That’s good to know - thank you for the clarification!
August 31st, 2007 at 4:18 pmIraq Privatization Moves Forward
Iraq’s ministry of industry and minerals would open up all 65 of its state-owned enterprises to joint ventures with international investors by the end of the year, the minister said on Wednesday.
“We have 65 facilities under our banner and all of them will be made available for joint ventures,†Fawzi Hariri told the Financial Times on Wednesday. He was speaking at a conference in Dubai on investment opportunities in Iraq.
Attracting foreign investment is seen as vital to the reconstruction of the economy, to creating employment and, the government hopes, to reducing sectarian violence.
Mr Hariri said that the ministry was already involved in discussions on investing in cement companies in the southern provinces of Karbala and Muthanna, in the northern governorate of Kirkuk and in the far-western district of al-Qaem on the Syrian border.
It has spoken to the French-owned Lafarge group and Egypt’s Orascom. Mr Hariri said on Wednesday that he also hoped to attract Mitsubishi from Japan, Dow Chemicals from the US and other companies to the ministry’s portfolio of petrochemical and heavy industry interests.
A source close to the ministry said that investment in joint ventures was an “initial step towards privatisation†as no law had yet been passed allowing the full sale of state assets.
http://www.ft.com/ cms/ s/ 0/ 4198d7e2-5655-11dc-ab9c-0000779fd2ac.html
August 31st, 2007 at 4:18 pmand?
August 31st, 2007 at 4:19 pmEverything Bush and Cheney have touched has been illegal from the signing statements to the destruction of the FOIA. If our elected Democrats do not have the spine to start impeachments, even if it gets bogged down why should Bush and Cheney change?
Never, in history has a government administration defied law as this bunch of bottom feeders.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:20 pmOK. I warned you it was a dumb question.
Comment by MapleStreet — August 31, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
Not so dumb. I wondered the same thing. Somebody cut a check to this “company” - time for an audit.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:21 pmThe mantra of the bottom feeding trolls is always “Clinto did it too!” But the truth is that nobody including Clinton or even Tricky Dicky ever has been this corrupt. These thugs should all face life in prison for the crimes the rethuglican party has allowed them to commit.
Before you ignorant morons make some stupid agrument about they haven’t commited a crime…let me correct you….they have not been convicted of a crime because they stonewall and impede justice at every turn which is a crime. If they have no crimes to cover up they should come forward with the emails and shut up the democratic party and their investigations.
Are you ignorant, knuckle dragging, troglodytes going to give Hillary the same leniency when she gets into the White House? Think about it, sh$t for brains.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:21 pmIraq Privatization Moves Forward
Iraq’s ministry of industry and minerals would open up all 65 of its state-owned enterprises to joint ventures with international investors by the end of the year, the minister said on Wednesday.
Comment by Tobey Tall — August 31, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
Victory for the corporatocracy!
Maybe. The devil’s always in the details with privatization. Perhaps there are enough non-corrupt people in the ministry that they’ll sign deals that actually benefit the people of Iraq instead of padding their offshore bank accounts. It’s a longshot, right?
August 31st, 2007 at 4:28 pmAnd the answer is –
SmarTech Corp? The same folks running the GWB43.com network for the RNC…
August 31st, 2007 at 4:29 pmMapleStreet: not a dumb question.
This company works for the taxpayers! They can’t legally hide the name of a company that is employed by the government. How could they possibly make this argument?
By the way, as a public service, the government ought to expose and put out of business any IT company that could conceivably lose 5 million emails that they are REQUIRED BY LAW to retain. Don’t we get to know who these incompetents are??
I’m being facetious. They aren’t incompetent and they didn’t lose 5 million emails and if anyone believes that then they are so dumb or brainwashed we gotta find a way to keep them from voting. I work in DP. THEY DID NOT lose those emails.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:31 pmWhat is amazing is that real conservatives that truly want a lawful society have lost their credibility as well. Can’t they see how far down in the mud the word Repubican has become to most people? Republican has become as dirty a word as child molester and will be for years. I would be ashamed to be associated with this party.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:35 pmThe name of the company is “RovesIndexFingerOnTheDeleteButton, Inc.”
August 31st, 2007 at 4:44 pmSeriously, this sounds like a puzzle on par with uncovering Jeff Gannon/Guckert, or Lieberman’s “mysterious” ISP outage. I mean, how hard could it be to find the name of a company that supports the White House?
August 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pmI saw John Dean on Countdown talking about his impressions of what is going on in the Whitehouse. These claims of Executive Privilege, claims that the VP is not part of the Executive Branch, refusing to appear and produce documents are all part of a last ditch effort to hide all the illegal activities. This administration is just hoping they can drag this out until the last day when Bush pardons everyone.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:27 pm“my dog ate the internet”
August 31st, 2007 at 5:31 pmThis administration under GWB continues to thumb its nose at the law. Impeachable offenses abound yet Pelosi won’t consider impeachment.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:35 pmIf she can’t do her job then let’s start the “Impeach Pelosi Movement”
It’s a matter of time, just a matter of time. The Republican party is done, stick the fork in ‘em. When this info comes out, it is gonna be devastating!
August 31st, 2007 at 5:36 pmBush had the White House PC hard-drives replaced > only way to destroy internal emails and such.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:40 pmWhat’s the returning Congress going to do about Gonzo’s order to not answer Freedom of Information Requests to the WH Office of Administration. Heretofore, they were most accomadating.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:44 pmOne more brick for the Keep of King George’s kingdom.
It never ceases to amaze me how utterly lame this Administration’s excuses are for not complying with the laws, rules and statutes! And it is truly disappointing to see the Democrats not doing more to stop them from getting away with it. I swear, it is like watching someone standing by holding the drug addict’s arm steady so he can hit the vein.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:45 pmJay Randal: If those hard-drives were replaced. Is there a born on date or something? i.e can one tell if they were tampered with?
August 31st, 2007 at 5:49 pmComment by JG — August 31, 2007 @ 5:45 pm
August 31st, 2007 at 5:50 pmI’m disappointed with Dems. They have the opportunity to demonstrate to America and the world that the rule of law exists within our government. They’re blowing it.
Bob Day > well you would see dates for new info stored on the hard-drives, but nothing earlier so you could determine date of replacement. Democrats in Congress are probably not smart enough to figure this out or they really do not care.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:54 pmThe company that the WH hired around the time that it was leaked that there were 5 million email on the RNC servers, presumably to facilitate the cover-up, was Stroz Friedberg (http://www.strozllc.com/). I recall a lot of talk about a Tennessee company that housed the servers…hell, back in March?!
Looking for the FDL threads where this was discussed.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:16 pmFound it!
http://www.firedoglake.com/index.php?s=stroz+friedberg
[…]
The three areas of progress are:
RNC Emails
Yesterday morning, the RNC provided Waxman a list of 37 (out of 50) of the people with RNC emails. It also admitted that they had 25 million KB of email data for the 37 individuals in question (that’s a lot of emails). And finally, they revealed that they had engaged a computer forensics firm to scan Karl Rove’s hard drive.
These efforts include retaining a leading, nationally-known computer forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, LLC, to provide advice and technical support. Over the last several days, Stroz Friedberg imaged several RNC-owned computers and blackberries that are currently being used by White House employees.
Okay–they didn’t mention Karl by name. But if you’re going to focus on just “several” people’s data, you’d think Karl would be at the top of that several, wouldn’t you?
Of course, all of this was an attempt to avoid having to turn over the shady emails that Waxman doesn’t yet know about–but Waxman didn’t buy it. So they still subpoenaed the RNC for basic information on the RNC email use.
As a result, I am asking the Committee to approve this subpoena. It asks the RNC to provide answers to basic questions about the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House officials, such as a list of which officials uses these accounts and how many e-mails they sent and received. The deadline is two weeks.
It also asks the head of the RNC, Mike Duncan, to appear before the Committee in two
weeks to testify about these matters, Depending on the kind of response the Committee receives
from the RNC in the interim, I will consult with the members about whether the Committee will
need to proceed with this hearing.
I like that last bit–subpoenaing Mike Duncan to appear before the committee. I imagine that’ll persuade Mr. Duncan to be a little more forthcoming with information about those emails.
Hatch Act Violations
Meanwhile, in what I assume was a similar attempt to forestall a subpoena (and probably a response to Jeffrey Smith’s reporting), the White House admitted it had held “informational briefings about the political landscape” at 20 government agencies. Big surprise–those agencies include several that have been accused of unfairly helping Republicans or hurting Democrats in their duties, such as DHS/FEMA’s preferential treatment of Mississippi at the expense of Democratically governed Lousiana after Katrina. You think maybe there’s a connection between Rove, asking agency heads to consider how they can help get Republicans elected, and agency policies that help get Republicans elected? Nahhh.
Once again, though, Waxman did not get distracted by shiny objects; after all, he had asked more generally about emails referring to the use of government resources to get Republicans elected. So the RNC got a second subpoena, this time looking for more information on potential Hatch Act violations.
As a result, I am asking the Committee to approve this subpoena. The subpoena asks the
RNC to provide the e-mails described above. It also asks for several previously requested
documents, including policies and procedures regarding the use of the RNC e-mail accounts, and
communications from federal entities regarding the preservation, storage, or destruction of emails.
Honestly, I suspect this subpoena is designed to bunge up the RNC works, because there’s no way they’ll completely comply with the subpoena (they’re not going to admit to all the ways Rove has used the RNC servers to talk about using government resources to establish a one-party state). But this subpoena will be something we can refer back to when we get new revelations of how BushCo used the RNC server to serve Rove’s ends.
MZM’s Contracts
The most interesting–and least reported–development relates to Waxman’s attempt to get the White House to turn over information on MZM’s contract with the White House. MZM, you’ll recall, was one of Mitchell Wade’s companies for which he was bribing Duke Cunningham in exchange for government contracts. It’s very first federal contract provided services of some kind to OVP–though those services have been variously referrred to as a furniture contract, service to scan mail for anthrax contamination, or (most recently), a service to scan email for threats (huh. we’re talking about email again). The contract is interesting for two reasons (in addition to the confusion about the services rendered). First, it pretty transparently paid for Duke Cunningham’s boat, the Dukestir. And second, MZM went on to provide key services tied to spying on Americans.
There were two developments on this front yesterday. First, in response to Waxman’s subpoena threat, the White House turned over to Waxman two hundred pages of documentation on the original MZM contract. And perhaps more interesting, the Department of Defense announced it was discontinuing a program associated with MZM’s spying contract (hat tip Laura Rozen).
Less than two weeks after being sworn in as undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. is moving to end the controversial Talon electronic data program, which collected and circulated unverified reports about people and organizations that allegedly threaten Defense Department facilities.
[snip]
Talon — which stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices — is operated under the direction of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, which was established in September 2002 by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz. CIFA was originally charged with coordinating policy and overseeing the domestic counterintelligence activities of Pentagon agencies and the armed forces.
The agency’s size and budget are classified, but congressional sources have said that CIFA had spent more than $1 billion through last October. One counterintelligence official at that time estimated that CIFA had 400 full-time employees and 800 to 900 contractors working for it.
Last August, CIFA Director David A. Burtt II and his top deputy, Joseph Hefferon, resigned in the wake of a scandal involving CIFA contracts that went to MZM Inc., a company run by Mitchell J. Wade. Wade pleaded guilty in February 2006 to conspiring to bribe then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif). [my emphasis]
You see, in my more speculative moments, I have wondered whether MZM’s domestic spying contracts were the most urgent reason for Carol Lam’s firing. How curious then, that just as the White House turns over documentation on the original MZM contracting, Defense announces it will end the more egregious domestic spying program?
It’s just one of those coinkydinks that subpoena power seems to produce.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:23 pmDeception, lies, secrets, favoritism and incompetence……..the hallmark of the worst presidency in history. Please, someone put them all in jail!
August 31st, 2007 at 7:40 pmFiguring out the identity of this company should be pretty easy.
This was a private company, so they had to be paid. The White House budget records should narrow down the possibilities to a very short list of companies.
Congress would then need only subpoena all companies who:
A. Have been paid for services under the White House budget.
And
B. Have the technical competency to provide secure e-mail retentions services.
If the press reports of some months ago were accurate, not many companies would have the technical competency to provide those services to the White House . Those press reports suggested that the White House e-mail retention system was completely separated from the actual e-mail servers. The White House retention system reportedly monitored all e-mail traffic and retained both incoming and outgoing messages. It was unclear if the system also retained webmail (Hotmail Gmail), but such systems do exist.
I suspect the list of companies who offer this service and have White House level security clearances is VERY short. . Congress could easily serve each of the companies who meet the above criteria.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:43 pmHow come most of the stuff on TP is almost NEVER covered or if it is, distorted and downplayed, in the New York Times?
August 31st, 2007 at 10:57 pmSo our duly elected members of Congress can’t have access to White House e-mails due to “sensitive security concerns”, but this same information can be turned over to an unidentified private corporation?
That is as reprehensible as the matter of turning over the storage and counting of our votes to private corporations (who are oftentimes also generous campaign contributors), with no opportunity to review their actions, since it involves “proprietary information.”
Isn’t privatization wonderful?
August 31st, 2007 at 11:31 pmAll this handwringing over these lost emails. I work for the Federal Government; and, I am willing to bed if a search warrant were served and all White House offices were searched (RNC and homes, too), you will find paper copies of many–if not most of those missing emails. Paperless offices do not exist in the Fed. Govt. Every one I know prints a copy of all important emails in case the system crashes. No one really wants to find these emails or they would be much more resourceful.
September 1st, 2007 at 12:34 amThis little story is in jeopardy of slipping under the radar and being forgotten. But this is really important. If this information is lost, then history will never know what insight we could have had into this unusually evil president and his administration.
September 1st, 2007 at 12:43 amHow come most of the stuff on TP is almost NEVER covered or if it is, distorted and downplayed, in the New York Times?
Comment by Shirley — August 31, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
———-
I’ll take this one.
Shirley, my Judaiophobic amiga, TP is propaganda site. No respectable publication would blatantly distort facts like TP.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:20 amHow come most of the stuff on TP is almost NEVER covered or if it is, distorted and downplayed, in the New York Times?
Comment by Shirley — August 31, 2007 @ 10:57 pm
———-
I’ll take this one.
Shirley, my Judaiophobic amiga, TP is propaganda site. No respectable publication would blatantly distort facts like TP.
Comment by AVGVSTVS
So, show us an EXAMPLE of “propaganda” on Think Progress.
On the other hand, Fox “news”, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Glen Beck, etc. are BLATANT PROPAGANDA.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:30 amtrolls? any defense of this one? wait… ACT was fined 750 G..thats it!
September 1st, 2007 at 9:50 amThe Judiciary, the third branch of government, must exercise the limits of its constraints and actively participate in these times of the Executive branch’s callous disregard of the law and the impotent Democratic majority against the maneuvers of a Republican complicit legislative branch. The letter of the law should function beyond the political maneuvers of any party. Can one claim what was once expressed with American pride after Watergate, that the system worked; that no one is beyond the law? The solutions for this impasse are obvious; the answer is not with the legislative branch. It is time for legal consequences to advance. Sufficient energy and time has been patiently afforded. It is time for Democratic and Republican “statesman” to stand up for a true American value entrusted to the legislative branch; that of oversight.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm#61 Good post . . . a couple of issues:
First,
“Yesterday morning, the RNC provided Waxman a list of 37 (out of 50) of the people with RNC emails.
[]
Okay–they didn’t mention Karl by name. But if you’re going to focus on just “several†people’s data, you’d think Karl would be at the top of that several, wouldn’t you?”
With this bunch, you’d be nieve to assume that “Karl would be at the top of that several . . .” Where have you been for the past six years. Of course you could safely assume that Karl ain’t one of the chosen 37.
Second, with regard to Hatch Act violations, this comment:
“Honestly, I suspect this subpoena is designed to bunge up the RNC works, because there’s no way they’ll completely comply with the subpoena (they’re not going to admit to all the ways Rove has used the RNC servers to talk about using government resources to establish a one-party state).”
It’s been my experience that when the DoJ, FCC, FTC or other agency investigate, the subjects of those investigations do not have the luxury of non- or partial compliance. They are legally obligated to completely comply. It’s not negotiable. The companies, their officers and attorneys would get hammered if they said, “Too hard, too complicated, too expensive, can’t do it.” If they added, “Suck an egg”, one can only imagine the consequences. Is the RNC an extra-special, dainty, dainty entity that operates in that elite stratosphere above the rest of America and so subject only to Paris Hilton style law enforcement. If so, suck an egg, we can slam that final nail into the coffin of democracy, sealing Bush’s legacy from the bright light of truth for eternity.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:30 pmIdentity of the e-hail hosting site according to an excerpt from:
“Network Hosting Attorney Scandal E-Mails Also Hosted Ohio’s 2004 Election Results”
By Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis, Free Press
Posted on April 23, 2007, Printed on April 23, 2007
The company: SMARTech Corp
September 2nd, 2007 at 5:12 pm