It’s sometimes helpful to gauge the seriousness of a controversy by the incoherence of the White House response. If the Bush gang has a strong defense that can explain their behavior, they’re more likely to brush a scandal aside. If the Bush gang stammers and stumbles, the scandal is more likely to dog them for a while.
Consider, for example, yesterday’s explanation for missing RNC emails from dozens of White House staffers.
Q Waxman’s committee has put out an interim report on the issue of the RNC emails showing, they say, that there was more use of those emails than the White House suggested, indicating possibly widespread violation of the Presidential Records Act. It’s, like, 140,000 emails of Rove’s, so the White House Counsel’s Office is aware that official business was being conducted through this party (inaudible) system? Can you respond to all that and what —
MR. SNOW: Look, I can’t respond specifically to things that the committee may have put out. But those email accounts were set up, A, on a model based on the prior administration, which had done it the same way, in order to try to avoid Hatch Act violations. And we’ll just — we’ll leave it at that. I mean, these were designed precisely to avoid Hatch Act violations that prohibit the use of government assets for certain political activities.
Q What have you all found in looking at these emails and emails related to the U.S. attorneys —
MR. SNOW: I don’t have any comment.
Snow’s response is completely ridiculous. Let’s unpack it a bit.
First, the Bush gang’s model is not “based on the prior administration.” This is Clinton-did-it-too-ism to a comical extent. The Clinton White House created a separate email system for staffers to use for political business, which they insisted be kept separate from government business. For that matter, to avoid any possible conflicts, access to external email was shut off from White House (eop.gov) computers. Is this the Bush model? Not so much.
Second, Snow seems to be arguing that the Bush gang violated the Presidential Records Act in order to avoid violating the Hatch Act. But this, too, doesn’t make any sense. To violate the Hatch Act, WH staffers would have to do political work with government resources. Snow has it backwards — WH staffers did government work with political resources.
Snow said the Hatch Act “prohibit[s] the use of government assets for certain political activities.” That’s largely true, but it doesn’t apply here at all. This White House used private political email accounts to conduct practically all of its work. I know Rove & Co. blurred the political/official line out of existence, but to hear Snow tell it yesterday, the Bush gang made no distinction between the two at all. That’s not much of a defense; it’s actually more of an admission.
There wasn’t much follow-up on the point, but reporters really need to push back against this nonsense. Snow was intentionally deceiving to them — blatantly and shamelessly — with an argument that falls apart under even a little scrutiny.
I should also note that yesterday’s press briefing was filled with a variety of other Snow gems.
On Iraq and the Middle East:
Q Do you think that the war in Iraq has helped push the peace process forward in any way?
MR. SNOW: Don’t know. I mean, what I don’t think is — quite often people say, well, you can’t — you’re not focusing on the Middle East because you’re focusing on Iraq. These are all related. As the President has pointed out before, whenever pro-democracy movements seem to be making some progress — Lebanon, for instance — there are actions that are designed to derail it. This is part of — this is part of the larger war on terror, and we, in fact, remain fully engaged on all fronts.
Q But before the war, the President said that taking out Saddam Hussein would help stabilize the Middle East. Do you think that’s turned out to be true?
MR. SNOW: Hard to say.
Actually, it’s really not.
And then there was this:
“This is an administration that is very careful about obeying the law. We take it seriously. The White House legal Counsel’s Office takes it seriously.”
Snow managed to say this with a straight face. I’m not sure how.