The RNC also had their GWB43 e-mail system set up by Michael Connell. This was the system that Rove et. al. were using to avoid Presidential Record Act violations (or Hatch Act violations, depending on which side of the aisle you are on). Connell got caught up in a suit regarding the 2004 Ohio elections, and was recently deposed after much legal stalling. He claimed Rove threatened him, and died in a single person plane crash Friday.

I suspect the Bush Administration has a lot to hide - not only Cheney or Rove.

C'mon -- it isn't like this is a money-losing land deal in Arkansas!

It's too late now and the records are going to disappear forever.

The time to take action was back in 2006, when the Democrats regained control of Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have threatened impeachments over the "missing" White House emails. Instead, she immediately said that impeachment was "off the table". When she did that, she gave away the only leverage that anyone had over Bush & Co.

With a Republican lapdog for an Attorney General, people in the Bush administration have been able to ignore Congressional subpoenas, confident that the Justice Dept. would never enforce them. And Bush will be able to issue pardons to all and sundry on his way out the door.

Thanks Pelosi,

The Bush Presidential Library at SMU is going to be a joke. It will have life size cutouts of Dubya, a few souvenirs from his presidency (probably nothing from New Orleans, though) and a copy of Bush's yellow Oval Office rug.

The archived records will be stored in a vault that Jack Benny would have envied, complete with a moat and alligators.

When Bush's library opens, we should all donate out of date science texts. Think of it as recycling.

I don't believe these communications are *disappeared*. Nor do I believe they can't be recovered. If they have been deliberately deleted there will be traces of such. Also if there were system breakdowns where drives were inadvertently erased, there should be documented proof this happened. But even if there was a malfunction, they would have back-up redundancy somewhere. They don't have high school geek admins running things, they have the best of the best. There's just no way they have let those files evaporate. Unless commanded to do so. If this can be proven, the act itself (c-o-v-e-r-u-p) is criminal.

"As Hilzoy explained the other day, it's principally about preventing another fiasco in the future: "A crucial part of the record of how our government was systematically perverted will be lost, and we will not be able to learn from it how to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. We cannot let that happen. Too much depends on it.'"

If you're really concerned about preventing a reoccurrence of the recent abuses--at least in the realm of foreign policy--your time would much better be spent looking into the "why" rather than the "how". For example, why is the pursuit of American hegemony worth killing thousands of innocent civilians on the other side of the world? (And why do we follow this broad historical arc regardless of who is residing at the White House?)

Personally, I don't see my life being the better because of the US's current standing in the global power structure. Indeed, in several respects it is worse. Think of the opportunity costs of our obscene level of "defense" spending.

On a related point, I'm a strong advocate for reinstating a military draft. If everyone had to put their butt physically on the line in the furtherance of the hegemony project, the debate over its worth would be much more open and vigorous.

Trust me....those records have been GONE for a long time already.

Cheney et al would NEVER allow detailed messages about their activities to see the light of day and they have actively worked behind the scenes to get rid of them....removing hard drives and quietly erasing massive amounts of correspondence. They frankly don't give a s..t what the law says. Their response will be, "So sue us. Spend years trying. You're not going to get anything and after a while everyone will forget about it...there will be other crises to deal with and Cheney et all will walk away unscathed.

I can hear the shredders grinding away in Washington all the way from here in the plains states. Keep your eye on the the White House budget line for shredders and you'll probably find extraordinary expenditures due to the rate at which the machines are burning out because of heavy use.

sarah.... sarah.... How sad. that cool Aid sure has a hold on you.

You are absolutely right, that Sandy Berger did remove some classified documents. (That is a typical GOP tactic: Democrats do it too, so it is OK for Republicans to do it as well)

Are you willing to make the case that Sandy Berger's transgression is at the same level of what Bush and Cheney and Rove have perpetrated?

If that is something you can't answer, how about answering the following:

How many people died because of Sandy Berger's taking some documents?
How many people ended up having their phones tapped illegally because of Sandy Berger?
Did anybody get tortured because of Sandy?

Let's see.... As a tax payer, investigating Sandy Berger, dealing with the issue, and documenting the entire debacle - to make Republicans happy, cost us... what? a few million dollars at the most?

Can you comprehend the amount of money Bush's regime has cost the US tax payer? Do you understand the number 3 with 12 zeros behind it?
$ 3,000,000,000,000.00 That is the estimated number of the Bush disaster presidency when accounting for the future cost of all the wounded veterans' health care.

Now go back to Redstate and drink some more Kool Aid. We need more people like you , to make sure the Republican party shrinks and shrinks... Like your buddy Norquist likes to say... "Make the GOP so small you can drawn it in a bathtub"

As a former 30+ years Federal Government employee, I believe there are many, many paper copies available for seizure. Most of us Feds did not believe in the paperless society idea and almost always printed copies of important email--just in case the system went down, etc. They need to get search warrants and search all homes of all white house employees for paper copies in addition to the electronic media.

You have to see the next step these crooks are going to come up with. As soon as their records are safely put away or more likely destroyed, they will put forth legislation to curtail the privacy of all correspondence within the White House. This will cause great pain and aggravation for the new administration in trying to find the proof of what this administration has done.

Most likely what Bush and Company ignore is the secret or open communications between or with foreign entities. Whole links and political give away are embedded through out the departments. Even the embedded Journalist through out the war, have collected very impressive histories likely oppressing all sorts of dynamical news that will sell or likely condemn Bush and Company.

To be sure the real corruption is the best friends of Bush and Company. America’s Mainstream Media. All of those associated to Bush and Company highly and likely to have kept exactly what is needed, by collecting, cataloging, and collating all necessary stuff to extort, or pressure Bush and Cheney, worse each other. As we all witness the extordinary battle of condemning ideals between FOX and MSNBC. At every turn Olberman trashes O’Reilly and O’Reilly accuses MSNBC of treason in doing business with IRAN.

Bush and Cheney have created their own hell, just now realizing because of the Grandstanding now needed to form a legacy is over bearing in the Media. For me especially with connections to the wide spread, torture and wire taping that is foremost loaded with precious details that will likely condemn Bush and Cheney family out of the political arena for generations.

If you ever had the Chance to read Gerald Posner’s book “Secrets of the Kingdom� try to it is most enlightening. Posner surrounded Bush with evidence that is overwhelming and convincing that George Bush and a host of political persons in Congress and the Senate are manipulated through money and bribes by the Arabs. Democrat, and Republican alike, in a sense both parties, “made off� with billions in Arab money to profiteer.

For me, after Obama’s inauguration there will be a serious change, and unexpected very serious change, along with a huge list of whistle blowers. Obama will realize that he will have to go after them other wise he Obama will be taken out. It was very interesting the other day listening to FOX News make a prophecy that Obama will likely have enough to untangle banking and stock market scams for the next decade. Now that was funny.

Cavuto, of FOX News only about six week ago with pride and a constant rant supported Bush and his economic fundamentals. But now, is constantly blaming the electorate or the Unions for the economic travesty Americans are now enduring.