Subpeenee Power

Dan Froomkin highlights something that hasn't hit the bigtime yet in the MSM handling of the USA purge. According to a report in the National Journal, Rove and his other flying monkeys like to use their RNC email and domain for "convenience":

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Alexis Simendinger writes in a National Journal story (subscription required): "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove may have forfeited potential claims of executive privilege over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys-- if he communicated about the latter outside the White House e-mail system, using his Republican National Committee e-mail account or RNC equipment. Or at least that's a legal possibility posed by rapidly advancing electronic technology and the evolving work habits of busy White House officials. . . .

"According to one former White House official familiar with Rove's work habits, the president's top political adviser does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account. Many White House officials, including aides in the Political Affairs Office, use the RNC account as an alternative to their official government e-mail addresses to help keep their official and political duties separate. Although some White House officials use dual sets of electronic devices for that purpose,

Rove prefers to use his RNC-provided BlackBerry for convenience, the former official said. . . .

"Some White House officials, including Rove, use the RNC's gwb43.com e-mail domain (an abbreviation for George W. Bush 43). Communications originating from that RNC domain written by White House political affairs aide Scott Jennings to officials in the Justice Department appeared in the first batch of e-mails given to the House and Senate Judiciary committees last week. The Jennings e-mails stamped with the RNC domain, as well as e-mails from then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy sent through the official White House system, were captured on Justice Department servers. . . .

"White House and RNC spokespeople did not respond to National Journal questions about Rove's use of the RNC e-mail system and the preservation of communications he created on its equipment."

Well shit and shoved in it, I declare, tut-tut and all that. Convenience. Convenience! Convenience?

So a couple thoughts come to mind. First, with Rove there is absolutely, and I mean 100% absolutely, no difference between his "political" and his "official" duties. All he does is politics all the time. For Rove, every strategical decision is itself a zero sum game in which he wins and Democrats lose.

Given that reality it makes sense that there is gold in that email server at gwb43.com which I suspect Rove and his minions use so that those communications are outside oversight capability of congress, and not just a matter of Conyers, Waxman, Leahy, etc. just sending a letter to the White House saying give us all emails between Rove and so and so.

I don't know how they are going to open that can of worms, but this one could get very interesting.