Shakespeare's Sister has a very good, and very important post up today regarding the Bush administration's unwillingness to use email. In short, Bush, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Chertoff and Rice do not use email. In the case of Secretary Rice, she will use email occasionally, to the tune of 3 or 4 known emails during her years in the Bush White House.

Further, there is evidence that White House officials are using emails from other sources, such as the Republican National Committee, to conduct official business.

The problem is that this circumvents the requirements of the Presidential Records Act. You know, I'm trying really hard to not go too far with this. Consider it a thought experiment for me. But I cannot understand why none of Bush's top officials or Bush himself would use email at all, and why other officials at the White House would use email accounts located on other, privately owned, servers, if what they were doing was ethical, legal, above-the-board.

I'm willing to entertain any and all theories of how this is not indicative of a presidential administration that is purposefully engaging in illegal behavior and is ignoring its legal and ethical obligations to American citizens in order for the members of the administration to protect themselves from future criminal prosecution.

Really. Let me know. Tell me how I can actually believe that these are the actions of honest men and women. For that matter, tell me, if no one broke the law or did anything improper in the US Attorney scandal, why it would still be important for White House officials to be excused from testifying under oath. I would really like to know, if they didn't commit any crimes, why it would have such a chilling effect upon the advice that a president could receive from his or her aides and advisors.

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