The Bush administration has made much of "cooperating" with the Obama transition team. But they have behaved like true bastards when it comes to turning over White House data to the National Archives, as required by law. No, it's not just about the missing emails, but about 100 terrabytes of data (five times the amount generated by the Clinton administration) which will hit the Archives on January 20.
"Millions of White House e-mail messages created from 2003 to 2005 appear to be missing and may not be recoverable. And in September 2007, the top lawyer at the National Archives wrote in a memorandum that he had “made almost zero progress” planning the transition because the White House had ignored repeated requests for information about the volume and formats of electronic records.
"In May of this year, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that 'the administration has not yet provided specific information on the volume and types of data to be transferred' to the archives. Linda D. Koontz of the accountability office warned in May and again in September that the National Archives might not be ready for the torrent of electronic records on Jan. 20."
Withholding information and impeding accessibility to records is are relatively small crimes for this White House. But we should quit being gentle with the administration in appreciation for its apparent openness with the Obama team. Vice President Cheney has been -- no surprise -- remains openly truculent.
"... Some historians, librarians and watchdog groups say they do not fully trust the administration to preserve its records.
"Their worries were heightened by a filing by Mr. Cheney’s lawyers this month in a lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and other interest groups. The filing said neither the National Archives nor the court 'may supervise the vice president or his office' for compliance with the Presidential Records Act."
Cheney will be a permanent Dark Force. Buck up! In the spirit of this White House team, you'll be able to watch endless reruns of the video showing Barney biting a reporter.
