OK, so Rove's a tad quick on the delete key, to the tune, apparently of 5 million emails. But every one of those was to or from someone, right? Rove's deletions are completely beside the point if his pen pals were obeying the law to preserve them on their end. What am I missing?

What Rove would say under oath

"I'll take the Fifth and a Presidential Pardon"

And he would get to keep his job.

He should now be fired.

He has done something wrong in direct violation of the Presidential records act.

The way I see it- If the contents and emails of the RNC computers are not subject to the same laws as the executive branch regarding the preservation of all communications, then those very same computers can not be shielded by any version of 'executive privlige', since they themselves have already decided that these computers are outside the reach of executive branch regulations.

It's one or the other:

If the executive branch claims that the RNC computers are part of their work product...or in any way claim executive privlige over the contents of these computers, then 20 or so White House staffers, including Karl Rove, will be (and should be) jailed for deleting communications that they were to preserve by law.

If the executive branch claims that they are not part of the communications that are required to be preserved by law, then those RNC computers and the servers they use, are no longer protected by the executive branch, and must be handed over.

It's a win win. Either way, Karl Rove goes to jail.

When Karl Rove deletes dozens of emails from the RNC server, he's simply acting on a political philosophy that has been expressed over and over throughout the history of this administration. As far back as that long summer of 2001 (before the planes took down the towers), as Bush languished on his ranch, hacking down branches, busy Dick Cheney refused to tell which big oil man helped develop the nation's energy policy. It was not the public's right to know how vital public policy was developed, he claimed.

Executive privilege. The oft-expressed "right" of presidents and their jesters to keep truth from the public. When public officials feel compelled to bluster about their right to keep secrets from the public, delete emails or erase tapes, they're doing it not to protect the public, but to protect themselves.

Leahy and Waxman need to tell the White House that this isn't a frickin' plea bargain.

Mr. Rove? Mr. Bush? Your salaries are paid by our tax dollars. You work for us, and you owe the American people some long-overdue answers.

No one would fight like this to keep things hidden if there was not a small mountain of "something to hide" yet unseen.

We have dots upon dots, and some connections are now clearly being drawn. I'm waiting for the "ink and paint" (animation term) and we just know it's going to be a truly ugly picture.

And still I maintain, get Cheney first. He's dirty. We know he's dirty. Very dirty. And he has to go before anyone (indeed, the nation) can realistically afford to go after Bush. And with Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, the 25th Amendment is now our friend.

We can only hope that the Supreme Court remembers they are Americans first, Republicans second. It's all going to land there.

"But every one of those was to or from someone, right? Rove's deletions are completely beside the point if his pen pals were obeying the law to preserve them on their end."

It depends. If they were all connecting to the same server, it's possible that the recipients never saved a copy of their email. Then he could delete every copy including the recipients'.

Of course, if there are regular backup tapes, it is almost impossible that Rove deleted everything. The recipients may also have some copies either because they saved them, or because they got cached (if they're using a client like Outlook, they might have been autoarchived on the other machines).

But even if the recipient intended to follow the law, they would have reasonably assumed that the copy on the server was sufficient, and would not have taken any other actions to save the emails from delete-happy presidential advisors.

Rove strikes me as one of these people who thinks he is a tech guru (remember how he registered all those domains to prevent them from being used to parody Bush?) but probably makes a lot of novice mistakes. Some emails may be gone for good, but all we need is one that shows culpability and evidence that he tried and failed to delete it.

with PaulBC above. They may think the emails are deleted, but unless a very extensive & redundant deletion process (both at the time the actual email itself is 'deleted' and then afterwards on all applicable servers) has been undertaken, they are still out there some place.

I thought Sen Leahy had a good line about knowing a 15 year old who could get them back pretty quick. I got a good chuckle out of that.

The Washington Post account of this story contains the following:

GOP officials ... acknowledged that they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server.

Could it be that GOP officials are FINALLY getting wise to the fact that Rove is an anvil around the party's neck going into 2008, and sees the email scandal as a way to get rid of him?

"Could it be that GOP officials are FINALLY getting wise to the fact that Rove is an anvil around the party's neck going into 2008, and sees the email scandal as a way to get rid of him?"

I see this more like a drunk giving his keys to a friend at a bar. "Please RNC make it impossible for me to break the law before I get caught doing it!! I can't help myself!"