During the Watergate scandal, Congress eventually forced the collapsing Nixon administration to hand over tapes that had recorded conversations in the disgraced White House. Except it turned out that the tapes had a very curious 18 1/2 minute gap in the middle of a key part that no one in the Nixon White House could (credibly) explain.
Turns out we have an new version of this CYOA (cover your own... rear end) trick for the 21st century: magically disappeared emails.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Bush White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.
The e-mails were considered potentially crucial evidence in congressional inquiries launched by Democrats into the role partisan politics may have played in such policy decisions as the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
At best, these people are incompetent and it raises further doubts about their ability to protect us and our privacy (not that they really ever had a clue about the former or any interest in the latter).
But calling them incompetent is probably way too generous. I seem to remember a very recent president who was impeached for obstruction of justice. Thought it was relating to a weighty issue of national importance (oral sex), not some triviality like making sure federal prosecutors were sufficiently politicized.
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