Patterico's Pontifications

4/14/2007

Oops!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:15 pm

Last week the L.A. Times reported:

Democrats say evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.

One of the examples given was this one:

In the U.S. attorney case, Rove deputy [Scott] Jennings used the RNC e-mail system to write to D. Kyle Sampson, then Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff, in August 2006 about replacing Arkansas U.S. Atty. H.E. “Bud” Cummins III with former Rove protege Tim Griffin.

“We’re a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes,” Jennings wrote in an e-mail from the gwb43.com domain name.

Oops!

For the record

White House e-mail: An article in Monday’s Section A on White House use of a private e-mail system incorrectly attributed to Scott Jennings, a deputy to senior advisor Karl Rove, an e-mail on that system saying, “We’re a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes.” The e-mail was written by Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley using a White House e-mail account.

Well, it’s a good thing that nobody fell for it.

And with a prominent correction in a tiny box on Page A2 — nobody could possibly miss it!

Comments (24)

24 Responses to “Oops!”

DOn’t worry… Even if they had never made the “mistake”, they would never let a silly little thing like facts sway their actions…
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 4/14/2007 @ 2:39 pm
Right claim, wrong example. Scan of Scott Jennings email to Sampson about Tim Griffin appointment sent from gwb43 account. Given that the particular quote from the message isn’t as important as the existence of the email and the account, the correction is low priority.

You’re clutching at a very small straw.
Andrew J. Lazarus (53db87) — 4/14/2007 @ 3:57 pm
I’d believe the claim if the method used to hit the mark wasn’t a shotgun-method… Accuse everyone of everything, and eventually you’ll get it right…
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 4/14/2007 @ 3:59 pm
I’ll try again: Law.com

… Ashcroft’s Justice Department appointees, with few exceptions, were not the type of people who caused you to wonder what they were doing there. They might not have been firm believers in the importance of government, but generally speaking, there was a very respectable level of competence (in some instances even exceptionally so) and a relatively strong dedication to quality government, as far as I could see.

Under Gonzales, though, almost immediately from the time of his arrival in February 2005, this changed quite noticeably. First, there was extraordinary turnover in the political ranks, including the majority of even Justice’s highest-level appointees. It was reminiscent of the turnover from the second Reagan administration to the first Bush administration in 1989, only more so. Second, the atmosphere was palpably different, in ways both large and small. One need not have had to be terribly sophisticated to notice that when Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey left the department in August 2005 his departure was quite abrupt, and that his large farewell party was attended by neither Gonzales nor (as best as could be seen) anyone else on the AG’s personal staff. Third, and most significantly for present purposes, there was an almost immediate influx of young political aides beginning in the first half of 2005 (e.g., counsels to the AG, associate deputy attorneys general, deputy associate attorneys general, and deputy assistant attorneys general) whose inexperience in the processes of government was surpassed only by their evident disdain for it. …
AF (c319c8) — 4/14/2007 @ 5:39 pm
As long as the overall story is true, the facts are unimportant. Nuance
Lord Nazh (d282eb) — 4/14/2007 @ 5:54 pm
“As long as the overall story is true, the facts are unimportant”
And you don’t get sent down to the minors for batting 800.
AF (c319c8) — 4/14/2007 @ 6:40 pm
So if the L.A. Times gets 40 percent of its facts right, AF, you’ll consider it to be batting .400 — an excellent average. Based on your analogy.
Patterico (f55d4a) — 4/14/2007 @ 6:44 pm
The correction also doesn’t explain why it matters, so most readers aren’t going to realize that it exculpates the Bush admin.
Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c) — 4/14/2007 @ 8:24 pm
I don’t think it does that.
Patterico (5b0b7f) — 4/14/2007 @ 8:27 pm
AF – Gee, nobody gave a farewell party for Comey, the guy who gave us Fitzmas.
Perhaps those who knew him best were glad to see him go?
Another Drew (8018ee) — 4/14/2007 @ 8:27 pm
I was thinking someone would come up with something like that.
The analogy is a bit sloppy but I used “800” an absurd number for baseball, and you come back with ” 400″ an “excellent” one.
You avoid the issue.

So how many articles has the AP run on Iraq? And how many AP reporters have been killed? The first number runs in the thousands; and the second number I think is 4.
And how many posts have you written on one day’s report, including those linking to this. “Still Standing” indeed. Should I link again to the list of the dead for that week?

Karl Rove and other White House employees were cautioned in employee manuals, memos and briefings to carefully save any e-mails that might discuss official matters even if those messages came from private e-mail accounts, the White House disclosed Friday.
Despite these cautions, e-mails from Rove and others discussing official business may have been deleted and are now missing.

White House officials spent much of Friday reiterating that the missing e-mails were the result of an innocent mistake. About 50 aides in the executive office of the Bush administration have used e-mail accounts provided by the Republican National Committee to keep campaign-related communication separate from their official White House business.

Whatever hapened to voter fraud and illegal immigration?

Another document–internal Justice Department “talking points” about the fired prosecutors–shows that Justice officials used identical language to describe alleged shortcomings in immigration enforcement by two U.S. attorneys.
About Carol S. Lam of San Diego, the memo said: “Regardless of what was done by the office in this area, she failed to tackle this responsibility as aggressively and as vigorously as we expected and needed her to do.” The same sentence was used for David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, except that “her” was replaced with “him.”

I’m just picking at random here, there’s lots more. And now I’m curious about Biskupic and the Georgia Thompson case.

You spend an hour talking about one swing of the bat, and ignore the game.
AF (c319c8) — 4/14/2007 @ 8:40 pm
I’ve said this before: the LAT seems sloppy. I’m not denying that. Still your strategy is a holding pattern based on criticism of errant details, not a rebuttal to the charges against the administration
AF (c319c8) — 4/14/2007 @ 8:46 pm
Still your strategy is a holding pattern based on criticism of errant details, not a rebuttal to the charges against the administration

Perhaps because he’s not trying to rebut charges against the administration?
Taltos (c99804) — 4/14/2007 @ 10:11 pm
I’m curious about Biskupic as well. But I have some questions:

1) Did Biskupic bring public corruption cases against Republicans?

2) Did any Dems support the way he handled the Georgia Thompson case?

3) Has the Court of Appeals issued a written ruling, so we can see their reasoning?

I believe the answers are yes, yes, and not yet. Correct me if I’m wrong,

Some want to leap to conclusions before learning the answers to such questions. I don’t.
Patterico (e0f6c0) — 4/14/2007 @ 10:44 pm
So what the Democrat congress is really pushing for is

1. An impeachment?

2. congressional conrol over US attorneys?

I have no idea except this is a do as much damage despite the absurdity
EricPWJohnson (92aae0) — 4/14/2007 @ 11:26 pm
Once again, someone supplies a list of issues, and you respond to the weakest and ignore the others.
Your playing the advocate. It’s your right of course (and it’s your day job) but you’re defending people over policy. This is adverarialism before discussion.
AF (c319c8) — 4/15/2007 @ 6:07 am
“Some want to leap to conclusions before learning the answers to such questions. I don’t.”

Maguire received a back-door compliment from Mark Kleiman which is, I think, somewhat applicable to you, Patterico.

“Maguire is a kind of litmus test. If there’s anything plausible, or even nearly plausible, to be said in defense of Republicans, Maguire will say it. But when the situation is completely, utterly, obviously hopeless, he’ll admit it. In the stopped-clock crowd he runs with, that makes him a beacon of intellectual honesty. Other Red bloggers, please copy.”

I don’t know if Kleiman reads you, but I thought
you should know what was said.
semanticleo (2f60f4) — 4/15/2007 @ 6:34 am
*sigh*

You’re retarded, aren’t you leo…

It’s ok if you are man. Honest. I just need to know if I need to start sovering the power outlets around here…
Scott Jacobs (a1de9d) — 4/15/2007 @ 6:36 am
Who CARES? What law was Broken? You mean the White House Plays politics?? Well I never!!

sheesh, I cannot believe the legs this NON Story has gotten!

Lets see, 93 AG’s fired against 8??

Whoa, this is a Disaster, Bush should be Nailed to the Cross!

Give me a Break! What a Bunch of Morons!
Mike (ab8159) — 4/15/2007 @ 7:47 am
AF,

Fine. I’ll respond to the other points.

On the e-mails: I want to see how it shakes out. So far, my impression is that White House officials like Rove were at a minimum sloppy about preserving e-mails that the law required them to preserve.

About using the same language to describe the same problem with respect to two people: that strikes me (as does much of this) as trying to make something out of hothing.

I notice you didn’t answer my questions about Biskupic. Would the answers be uncomfortable for your theory?

P.S. Genuine curiosity: is he related to Joan, the USA Today legal affairs reporter?
Patterico (5b0b7f) — 4/15/2007 @ 7:54 am
“You’re retarded, aren’t you leo…”

Your most salient contribution thus far, but…..

You might want invest in some sensitivity training so that you don’t infect this site with your derogations of the infirm. I assume it was not a compliment, and as such, is merely your projection
that causes your stumble.
semanticleo (2f60f4) — 4/15/2007 @ 9:01 am
“So far, my impression is that White House officials like Rove were at a minimum sloppy about preserving e-mails that the law required them to preserve.”

I’m sorry. If you know just a little bit about the tech, you know it is hard to be sloppy about saving emails. Just configure your mail servers to save a copy of everything that passes by it.
marc (39c65f) — 4/15/2007 @ 11:31 am
“I notice you didn’t answer my questions about Biskupic.”

How can I answer your questions when questions are all I have? I read Biskupic’s response just as you did.
I said I was “curious,” and I still am.
As to the rest, I can’t argue with “impressions.” Your fan base will take them on faith, and with that sort of language that’s the only audience you’re thinking of.
AF (c319c8) — 4/15/2007 @ 1:37 pm
Irony:

Al Gore made TWO FUNDRAISING TELEPHONE CALLS from White House telephone lines and the Republican anti-Freedom apparatus launched an investigation that took us deep into Gore’s colon and lower-intestine. That Al Gore would abuse White House resources in a political fashion like that was SHOCKING to decent Republican everywhere.

Now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current occupants of 2600 Pennsylvania Avenue have politicized anything and everything they get near. Worried about oversight? Just use the RNC emailing system – it’s like magic. This type of behavior is not only acceptable to Republican noise-machine hypocrites, it is encouraged and even admired.

Let freedom ring!
The Liberal Avenger (b8c7e2) — 4/15/2007 @ 5:02 pm

4/14/2007

Oops!

24 Responses to “Oops!”

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