The Dog Ate My Emails

You got to be kidding me.

The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

Congressional investigators looking into the administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors already had the nongovernmental e-mail accounts in their sights because some White House aides used them to help plan the U.S. attorneys' ouster. Democrats were questioning whether the use of the GOP-provided e-mail accounts was proof that the firings were political.

This is technological equivalent of saying the dog ate their homework. I bet the FBI can find those emails if they tear apart the White House/RNC servers.

Update: this quote really bothers me.

Stanzel said some e-mails have been lost because the White House lacked clear policies on complying with Presidential Records Act requirements.

Stanzel needs the read the Presidential Records Act.

Defines and states public ownership of the records

Places the responsibility for the custody and management of incumbent Presidential records with the President

Allows the incumbent President to dispose of records that no longer have administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value, once he has obtained the views of the Archivist of the United States on the proposed disposal

Requires that the President and his staff take all practical steps to file personal records separately from Presidential records

Establishes a process for restriction and public access to these records. Specifically, the PRA allows for public access to Presidential records through the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) beginning five years after the end of the Administration, but allows the President to invoke as many as six specific restrictions to public access for up to twelve years. The PRA also establishes procedures for Congress, courts, and subsequent Administrations to obtain special access to records that remain closed to the public, following a thirty-day notice period to the former and current Presidents.

Requires that Vice-Presidential records are to be treated in the same way as Presidential records

The responsibility for these lost emails falls on Bush. The White House must clear the disposal of records with the Archivist.