Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing

Is this the scandal that finally brings down this rogue administration. It almost seems they are begging to be brought down. Their obsession with secrecy and skirting the law is dumbfounding:

A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

If you are wondering, this is what is at issue:

The disclosures helped fan the controversy over what the White House has acknowledged to be the improper use of political e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.

In these e-mails you can bet were incriminating discussions on the attorney firings and the Jack Abramoff scandal:

E-mails from Rove and other White House officials potentially figure in a number of congressional investigations. Democrats are seeking the RNC e-mails as part of an effort to determine the extent of Rove's role in firing the U.S. attorneys and the alleged politicization at the General Services Administration.

Even the White House admits the e-mails could involve the attorney firings:

“It can’t be ruled out,” Scott Stanzel, the deputy White House press secretary, told reporters this morning when asked if some of the missing e-mails included those related to the dismissals.

Like with Nixon, its not the crime but the cover up that will bring down this gang:

Democrats want to know whether White House officials intentionally used political e-mail accounts to escape scrutiny or circumvent the law requiring preservation of records. They reacted with suspicion on Wednesday.

These are the words that will haunt the Bushies:

Other messages have brought scrutiny as well, including exchanges between Susan Ralston, a former assistant to Mr. Rove, and Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist convicted of corruption charges.

Ms. Ralston apparently preferred to e-mail Mr. Abramoff and associates on her national committee Blackberry. In one exchange, Mr. Abramoff and a colleague worried about an e-mail message that wound up in the White House system.

“Dammit,” Mr. Abramoff wrote, “it was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.”