A Consequential Game of Chicken

But Perino was either accidentally or intentionally muddling the issue.

First of all, there is no question that e-mails to and from White House accounts get archived, regardless of who they come from or are sent to. The issue is what has happened to e-mails to and from White House officials that were kept entirely out of the White House system.

Secondly, while the Hatch Act would appear to prohibit the use of government resources such as e-mail accounts for political purposes, the issue here is the precise opposite: The use of political e-mail accounts for official business. And that raises all sorts of questions about preservation, security, appropriateness, and subterfuge that Perino did not address.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Commmittee on Monday directed the RNC to preserve the emails of White House officials.

And as I wrote in Friday's column, Alexis Simendinger wrote in the National Journal (subscription required): "According to one former White House official familiar with Rove's work habits, the president's top political adviser does 'about 95 percent' of his e-mailing using his RNC-based account. Many White House officials, including aides in the Political Affairs Office, use the RNC account as an alternative to their official government e-mail addresses to help keep their official and political duties separate. Although some White House officials use dual sets of electronic devices for that purpose,

"Rove prefers to use his RNC-provided BlackBerry for convenience, the former official said."

I asked the White House a series of questions about the outside e-mails two weeks ago, but have yet to hear back.

In a letter to the White House today, the activist watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government points out that a Clinton-era White House staff manual explicitly required aides to use White House e-mail accounts for "all official communications." And a September 2000 memo to White House staff specifically banned the use of other e-mail services.

Cancer in the White House

Thoughts about humanity and mortality trumped politics yesterday in the White House briefing room as the White House announced that press secretary Tony Snow has suffered a possibly fatal recurrence of cancer.

William Douglas writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "Perino informed reporters about Snow's cancer during the routine early morning off-camera press briefing. Usually it's contentious, but Tuesday's session was somber as Perino struggled with her composure and reporters respectfully asked questions about Snow's condition.

"Helen Thomas, a Hearst Newspapers columnist and dean of the White House press corps who frequently spars with Snow, told Perino: 'Tell him we hope he'll stay on the job.'"

David Brown writes in The Washington Post: "Precise estimates of survival are not available, although several studies suggest it is about two years on average."