Ride the Lightning

QUICK, SEND IN THE CLOWNS. DON’T BOTHER, THEY’RE HERE.

March 28, 2008

Ah, the phrasing of the inimitable Frank Sinatra. Good of him (and Mr. Sondheim of course) to give me the perfect blog posting title.

It refers to the idiots that the White House keeps relying on to explain why they have missing e-mails and why the recovery of those e-mails would be either impossible or way too expensive. It is truly silly season in Washington.

At a February Congressional hearing, Theresa Payton, the chief information office at the White Office of administration testified that a lot of e-mails sent and received from 2003-2005 had been lost when the office transitioned from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange. It’s really hard to imagine anyone keeping a straight face. Funny Theresa, we’ve done that migration many times and, I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but we’ve never lost a single e-mail. Let me put it simply – if this is the extent of your technology knowledge, you really need to look at career alternatives.

Congressman Darrell Issa, clearly wearing his clown paint that day, was delighted to have such a great explanation. A Bush apologist, he went so far as to say that the missing e-mails, given Payton’s explanation, showed no malfeasance by the White House or negligence on the part of the administration’s IT staff, but just a computer glitch that happened when the White House phased out an archaic program. He even characterized Lotus Notes as “wagon wheel” technology. IBM went, understandably, ballistic and secured an “amendment” to the record from Issa.

The EOP’s assertions that massive amounts of time and money would be required to recover the data flatly defy belief. This has become the order of the day. Play fast and loose with facts and then jack the recovery price into the stratosphere to evade having to comply with federal law. The National Security Archive has entered the fray, stating (correctly) that “the costs associated with copying or imaging . . . sources of missing e-mails is not only quantifiable, but is also nominal.” Amen.

Send the clowns back to the circus. No one with even a dim mental wattage believes the White House. Send in a real forensics team and put an end to the nonsense.

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