Presidential e-mail mess (Las Vegas Sun editorial)

[struggle4progress]

Bush administration goes out clinging to its disgraceful policy on public records

Tue, Jan 20, 2009 (2:06 a.m.)

In one of its last acts, the Bush administration essentially thumbed its nose at a federal judge, defying an order to search for and archive millions of White House e-mails.

After spending several years fighting a lawsuit by two nonprofit groups seeking the preservation of the e-mails, administration lawyers on Friday said the court lacked authority to order the White House to search for missing e-mails in the offices of the president and vice president.

The audacity of the statement would be stunning if it were from any other administration, but from the Bush White House, it was predictable. The outgoing administration has gone to great lengths to keep its workings secret and created an unofficial policy of fighting, at taxpayer expense, requests for public information ...

Last week, a judge told the White House to search all of its computers and electronic storage devices for the missing e-mails and order current and former employees to turn over old messages. White House officials showed no interest in doing so. They said they had found more than 14 million messages, but what will happen to those and other e-mails is unclear. It appears the administration would be happy to see them expire along with Bush’s term today. We hope the courts will act to stop a precedent from being set for future presidents ...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan/20/presidential-e-mail-mess/

[acmavm]

1. Defying an order by a Federal judge? That's quite contemptuous

behavior, isn't it?

[struggle4progress]

2. It reaches the level of "constitutional crisis"

[liam_laddie]

3. Let's get Bruce Fein right on this!

Altho' with the current 5-4 lock in the SCOTUS, it may take a popular "legal revolt" to get the Roberts-Alito-Scalia-Thomas axis (term used intentionally) to understand and accept that this is supposed to be a country ruled by law, not by a right-wing cabal of Federalist Society alums.
There is no more unctuous, arrogant, self-righteous or distasteful a person on this planet than Fat Tony. He should be prosecuted for faking a post-dated memo regarding an election issue when he was on the DC Appeals Court. There is suspicion that his SC seat was payoff for this favor.
(I'll post a reference when I'm home with my research materials.) Meanwhile - GOBAMA!!

[liam_laddie]

4. Some comments on Scalia

In "Votescam: The Stealing of America" by James M. and Kenneth F. Collier, ISBN 0-9634163-0-8,
pp, 257-261 plus other sections. Whether you accept this as fact or not, Tony was involved in a
coverup; MHO. Used copies available through Amazon, for those so inclined.