republican national committee receives new nasty-gram from rep. henry waxman

okay -- i'll admit to a spine-tingling
thrill each time i stop by the house
oversight committee's web-server, and
find that chairman henry waxman has
put pen to parchment, yet again. . .

note particularly his strategy: make
sure that the witness knows what he
will be asked, so there will be scant
room for any "i'm not prepared to
answer those sorts of questions"
deflection/dissembling/ducking.

note also that rep. waxman aims to
flesh-out the scope of the presidential
records act pattern-violations
with this missive, and the subsequent
may 8, 2007 oversight committee hearing
testimony.

finally, i'll note that no one with a firing
frontal lobe will now accept that the e-mails
are destroyed -- gone -- vanished. . .

no. . . they are just [very-]temporarily in
hiding. and the r.n.c. better start coughin'
up some serious server-recovery, or there
will criminal referrals afoot. that is the
plain subtext of this letter. okay -- let's look:

May 1, 2007

Mr. Mike Duncan
Chairman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

Dear Mr. Duncan:

On April 25, 2007, the Oversight Committee voted to subpoena you to testify before the Committee on May 8, 2007. I recommended this action to the Committee reluctantly because I would have preferred to have obtained your voluntary cooperation. The subject of the hearing will be the use by White House officials of e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC and the preservation or destruction of these e-mail accounts.

The purpose of this letter is to describe the subjects that the Committee expects you to address at the hearing and to inform you that Committee staff remains available to discuss with you or your counsel whether there are steps that can be taken to eliminate the need for your testimony.

At the hearing on May 8, the Committee will expect you to be prepared to address the issues discussed in the Committee's recent correspondence with the RNC, including the following topics:

1. The names, titles, and e-mail addresses of all White House officials who have used RNC e-mail accounts;

2. The number of communications each White House official sent or received using RNC e-mail accounts each year, including the number of communications sent to or received from official ".gov" e-mail accounts each year;

3. Policies and procedures relating to the preservation, storage, or destruction of communications transmitted using RNC e-mail accounts;

4. Communications between the RNC and any government entity (including the White House) regarding the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House officials, including communications about the preservation, storage, or destruction of communications transmitted using RNC e-mail accounts;

5. Any destruction of communications sent or received by White House officials using RNC e-mail accounts;

6. Steps taken by the RNC to preserve or recover communications sent or received by White House officials using RNC e-mail accounts; and

7. Steps taken by the RNC to respond to the Committee's requests for information and documents.

The Committee's goal is to obtain information necessary to understand the scope of the potential violations of the Presidential Records Act caused by the use of RNC e-mail accounts by White House officials for official communications. I remain willing to consider ways in which the RNC could provide this information that would not require your testimony. You or your counsel should contact Committee staff if you would like to discuss alternative means of responding to the Committee.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact David Rapallo or Michael Gordon of the Committee staff at (202)225-5420.