1 Boring Old Man

White House unofficial e-mail accounts draw scrutiny

The White House is being accused of improperly trying to hide e-mails about government business by using unofficial e-mail accounts.

Congressional investigators say they found communications on one account from top White House aides about official matters, like the December firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Those e-mails were discovered on a Republican National Committee e-mail domain called gwb43.com. That domain is not part of the official White House communication system.

The Presidential Records Act, passed during the Nixon administration, requires the preservation of all official records of and about the president.

A White House spokesman defended the use of outside e-mail accounts as an appropriate method of separating official business from political campaign work.

But the use of those accounts by officials discussing the firings — and one from now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff — have led a liberal watchdog group to accuse administration of trying to skirt the law governing preservation of presidential records.

"They wanted to make sure that no record could ever be found of what they were really up to in the White House," Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNN.

Rep. Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has sent letters to the RNC and the former head of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, arguing that outside e-mails are subject to the act.

In March, Waxman notified those groups that congressional investigators "have uncovered evidence that White House staff have used non-governmental e-mail accounts to conduct official government business," and called on them to preserve those records.

White House political advisers used the outside e-mails to discuss the December firings of federal prosecutors in eight cities, a shake-up that has led to a firestorm on Capitol Hill, documents released amid the flap have shown.

Waxman’s committee released another chain of e-mails it said illustrated the type of exchange taking place on the account. The e-mails began with a February 2003 message from Abramoff to Susan Ralston, the former executive assistant to President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove.

In the chain, Abramoff advised Ralston that an upcoming Interior Department gaming compact with a Louisiana Indian tribe would be "an anathema to our supporters down there."

When an associate notified him that his e-mail had been forwarded to another White House aide, Abramoff replied, "Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her RNC pager and was not supposed to go into the WH (White House) system."

So will we get the email today? or  have they been destroyed? or will the White House continue to feign concern for the personal privacy of its staffers. I like the fluidity of their logic. Private citizens are fair game – like NSA and FBI looking into our email and phone conversations. But staffers – see, that’s different. The only thing different is who is served – at least that’s the only apparent difference. Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson wouldn’t see it as different, I don’t think.

In my post below about Froomkin’s article, I compared this email thing to Alexander Butterfield’s revelation that Nixon had taped his life in the White House. I doubt that Bush has tapes, or that they would be particularly interesting. But the working emails between Karl Rove and almost anyone would be of great interest. This Administration has been very effective at keeping their sheenanigans out of the public eye until recently. For six years, things just happen, but they can’t bring off the kind of almost constantly reactive smear campaign they’ve been running without having some kind of way of communicating.

It brings up a major point. Why is there an Internet in the first place? It’s the same reason there are Interstate Highways – National Defense. Eisenhower tasked the people who put our first satellite up [ARPA] to set up a communication system that could not be shut down [ARPA-net]. It’s what we call the Internet now. When Al Gore said that we needed an "information highway," people in the know just laughed and said "another one?" So the rest of us got on board.

It’s such a good system that it’s inconceivable that Rove et al haven’t used it to coordinate their consolidation of power. Access to their communication system, in particular, Rove’s communication system, would open the door in two ways. First it would tell us what they’ve really done. Second, it would shut them down. Right this minute, Alberto Gonzales is sweating blood because he can’t coordinate his story with his associates. Cut off this Administration’s ability for private communications and the house of cards falls.

So, even more than the communications about the U.S. Attorney firings, I want access to the "Talking Point Network" – whatever system they’ve used to get these coordinated smears going almost instantaneously. The American people have been duped by the public persona of this Administration. Like with the White House tapes, it won’t take too many emails from behind the scenes to put the needed pin in the baloon.