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Karl Rove, Blackberry Junky
So Karl Rove's emails seem to have mysteriously disappeared from the RNC's servers.
And it's clear that Rove really wouldn't want record of his emails. Why? Because it's well established he's a manic Blackberry user. A longtime TPM reader sent in this dispatch:
To find out how Karl Rove has used his RNC e-mail account, I turned to published profiles and assembled this pastiche:Karl Rove is "a manic package of intensity and energy" who is "surgically attached to his Blackberry." "When he's not on the phone, he's tapping e-mail messages into his handheld Blackberry," "staying in the loop" even when he's out of the office. It's a passion with some history; Karl had "one of the earliest experimental e-mail programs." He can be found "'chipmunking' as he steps off of Air Force One," perhaps keeping "in constant contact with Mr. Mehlman by BlackBerry." He's used the Blackberry in the Eisenhower building while sharing "discreet chuckles with Andrew Card...and Condoleezza Rice," and in "a domestic policy meeting in the Roosevelt Room." He's been known to use it "in bed and while driving," and "when quail hunting down in South Texas...tapping away...during the shoot." In fact, "he even uses it to e-mail colleagues in the same room."
Continuing...
There you have it. Karl Rove, early adopter. Karl Rove, inveterate e-mailer. Karl Rove, who'd rather chipmunk than talk. But there's a punchline here. His ubiquitous Blackberry used an e-mail account issued to him by the RNC. (And given that Susan Ralston's device actually belonged to the RNC, it seems probable his did, as well.)We're going to see a lot of smoke from the White House over the next few weeks intended to obscure the extent of the misconduct here. So let's not forget what we already know about Karl. Everything he did, he did through his Blackberry. And the entire point of his using the device for government-related work was to eliminate any trace of his actions from government records.
The Presidential Records Act was intended to make our leaders accountable. And Karl Rove deliberately flouted the law. Again.
Josh
Zachary
The company that runs Blackberry, Research in Motion, is Canadian. Does that mean that Rove's e-mails went across international borders?
April 12, 2007 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
RIM actually licenses out the server software, too. So it's possible for an organization to manage their own private Blackberry server. I'm not sure for how long this has been the case...
April 12, 2007 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holy crap, this is getting interesting.
Even as I was saying last year how different EVERYTHING would be if we got only one house of congress and committee powers . . . I have to pinch myself.
Keep raking!
April 12, 2007 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does that mean that Rove's e-mails went across international borders?
Could be. At least crackberry comms are (I think) encrypted to some degree. The stuff sent using regular RNC-mail appears to have travelled in the clear.
April 12, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess then that it's no accident that Rove looks like a chipmunk. A chipmunk that grew up eating play-dough and hiding his nuts or his emails or whatever.
April 12, 2007 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
(As I've posted in some previous threads...)
Congress needs to Subpoena Research in Motion!
Most non-governmental e-mails sent or received via Blackberry devices go through RIM's e-mail servers. (the US Government has its own Blackberry servers). I don't know how long RIM retains e-mail, but the sooner Congress subpoenas RIM, the more messages they'll receive.
As br points out above, RIM's servers are in Canada. That said, the vast majority of RIM's business in the US. So I can't imagine RIM would dare to ignore a Congressional subpoena.
April 12, 2007 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look, I'm going to go out on a limb here. Karl Rove is simply the slickest political trickster since Lee Atwater. Catch me if you can!
I will tell you my code word, AND where you can find 5 million RNC e-mails, for a dollar.
April 12, 2007 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
TPM:
I find it funny that Karl Rove was on his Blackberry so much as to warrant a press note about it. Given that he was on it so much AND the fact that Karl wouldn't DARE send offical emails on non-White House Email systems (yeah, right), I think it's worth raising the possibility that having Rove on the Payroll at the White House might be illegal. If he's spending so much time on political things, what is he doing for his $160,000/yr salary?
The answer is somewhere in between. He probably is spending too much time on political things to be on a government salary. He's also probably sending official emails (via the blackberry, etc.) in contrevention of the PRA.
I'd love to see TPM dig into this and get him fired!
Chris
P.S. Have you guys thought about opening up a school of journalism? You should!
April 12, 2007 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Utterly amazing and mind boggling... really. I was always (and remain) confounded by the ability to blatantly lie...even knowing that evidence to the contrary was not only available, but that the questioners would seek it out (if they didn't already have it) - yet this admin has always done that... and been burned for it.
Now we have this... do they really and truly believe anyone would fall for this? My god... how inept are these people really? C'mon... to have a plan to get around the law (parallel systems) but not have a credible back up or strategy in case they got called on it... a back up ghost server, etc.?
A quick search of ISP traffic and records would defeat a casual attempt. This is just sloppy... if you're going to lie at least put up a credible effort for f*ck sake and be ready to back it up.
Didn't Cheney et al learn ANYTHING from Watergate?
(Rhetorical question). Of course, they can now drag and slow march all of this out - screwing the nation and the people further...
Karl still has his dual citizenship - does anyone really think that if push came to shove he wouldn't become a flight risk?
Not sure if I should laugh or cry or both hysterically.
April 12, 2007 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
This bill “Reid-Feingold measure” to end the Iraq war will be the one VOTE that will win the Presidential Election. Why?
As time moves forward, more and more Americans will be “repulsed” by the blatant troop abuse.
Between the wounded, the deaths, no training, no rest, no proper equipment, extensions never ending. Additionally, the clear end result will be depleting the military forces.
And then add the icing on the cake; personal financial demise that ALL Americans have felt over the past 6 years, and continuing on with no end.
Would you VOTE for a Presidential candidate that clearly knows that commodities are bleeding citizens dry directly because of the war, but chooses to DO NOTHING to end the war?
As American citizens ask yourself and or your neighbor to look back at his/her own expenses over the past 6 years.
Basic Expenses that have gone up more than 100 percent.
Electricity
Gasoline
Home Heating Oil
Home Propane Gas Bill
Weekly Groceries X 52 weeks
Health Insurance Prem.
Dental Insurance Prem.
Prescription Co-Pays
Dog and Cat Food
Cable Bill
Land Telephone Bill
Clothing Dry Cleaning Bill
Car Maintenance Bills
All wars produce a back end tax on all commodity items, just like the ones listed above. The simply name is called extreme inflation.
All Senators and Presidential candidates that don’t support the “Reid-Feingold” bill will be tossed like dirty gum wrappers.
Most VOTING Americans remember the extreme inflation during the Vietnam venue time.
Citizens Wake Up Call
April 12, 2007 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I eagerly await Fred Hiatt's next editorial lambasting MC Rove for attempting to run a "shadow government."
sec code: bell, as in, "for whom the bell tolls." The bell tolls for you, Fat Bastard.
April 12, 2007 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
the fact that ROVE used a Blackberry means that there is a 100% chance that all of those emails still exist. Messages via blackberry are synced to another email account and go through several more servers than a regular e-mail due to "push technology" - they remain on a server and are not "pulled off" or deleted when sent to the blackberry. they do not dissapear into thin air. So in reality with the Blackberry, there is much more of an "electronic paper trail" than regular email.
April 12, 2007 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get the RNC tech support guy under oath quick. Find out if special orders were given to either reformat or overwrite (save large quantities of junk) onto the RNC servers. If yes, then you have a criminal conspiracy to destroy evidence. If no, then you have the evidence itself and the tech guy will testify that most of it could be recovered.
April 12, 2007 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
ClayAllison has a point.
Subpoena the IT manager for the RNC. If (s)he doesn't come up with the E-Mails, prosecute Her/him for obstruction of justice and for contempt of Congress.
Democrats - get serious about this and quit pussyfooting around.
April 12, 2007 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder, who owns the blackberry? Karl or the tax payer? Who pays the bill, Karl or the tax payer?
So, one can argue, if the tax payer pays the bill and device, it is public property. And if the contract is held by and payed for by the tax payer it is owned by the American tax payer.
If the item was used through a third party, but the device is payed for by tax dollars, both the third party and the device are not subject to Presidential privilege.
Any thoughts?
April 12, 2007 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ask Jackie Abramoff, he's sitting around waiting for a get out of jail card and he knows more than he's saying yet. his hard copies probably IS the get out of jail card. woweewow. impeachgate continues.
April 12, 2007 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here are some good news stuff regarding hiding
emails..
http://wood-s.newsvine.com/_news/2007/04/12/660271-time-for-the-it-boys-to-rip-into-the-white-houses-private-server
The quote below is From :http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/4/12/73713/5692
By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Corruption Cases
The FBI's computer forensics teams can recover them. I've got clients in prison who can attest to that.
It does not require the FBI--any competent computer forensics person with access to the server can recover them, or at least most of them. Therefore, Congress should issue a forthwith subpoena duces tecum for the server itself.
Now thats is good!
April 12, 2007 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does the blackberry that Rove uses in bed scream for hours on end that it feels dirty as stands in the shower buffing itself raw under scalding water?
Inquiring minds wanta know.
April 13, 2007 3:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
pre-amerikkkan: Word.
Also, I'd really like to see R. Robert Acosta get a subpoena. He was the INTERIM appointed USA who prosecuted Abramoff. He MUST have had access to WH and RNC email archives. This was around the time that RNC started archiving Rove's email separately; he had to have known about that. He had to have seen illegal use of private accounts for gov't business; if he did, he was then obligated to report that to... Gonzalez? Oh, yeah.
Acosta's job before INTERIM USA in S. Florida? AAG for Civil Rights Division, 2003-2005. His first task there? Approval of Texas redistricting.
So- a political hack for the GOP investigating a political hack for the GOP, himself charged with paying off political hacks throughout the GOP.
April 13, 2007 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
What is the likelihood that the National Security Agency maintains legal or illegal archives of all White House & RNC messages, audio, video and electronic?
Their extensive data collection efforts no doubt have swept up an enormous quantity and mix of White House and other governmental, political, corporate and lobbyist communications, if only as part of counter-intelligence monitoring. Also, given their state-of-the-art data-mining capacity, search and retrieval would be a routine procedure.
April 13, 2007 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
an acquaintance says:
"if they conducted business over unsecured equipment routed through a foreign country, how many government and secrecy acts did they violate?"
April 13, 2007 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rove's addiction to his Blackberry is truthfully documented - you can see it for yourself in the "MC Rove" video - in the midst of the performance, he pulls out his Blackberry and taps away into it while he's dancing...
April 13, 2007 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember Al Gore's fundraising calls in 1996 and 97 when he was Vice President? So, what about Karl? Sounds like what he's been doing with his Blackberry, and where he's been doing it, is Gore raised to about the tenth power. See what you think:
Documents Indicate Al Gore Made More Fund-Raising Calls
By Marc Lacey
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON
The number of fund-raising calls made by Vice President Al Gore grew even higher Tuesday as newly available documents showed that Gore telephoned more than 75 donors in 1995 and '96 to encourage them to support the Democratic Party.
The records, which were provided to Senate investigators in recent weeks, increase by several dozen the number of telephone pitches made from Gore's White House office.
They also show that the Democratic National Committee, at Gore's urging, reimbursed the federal treasury earlier this year for $24.20 to cover the cost of 20 fund-raising calls that were not charged to a campaign credit card account...The new figures include 46 direct fund-raising pitches by Gore between Nov. 28, 1995 and May 2, 1996. In 10 other cases, he tried to reach donors but did not get through.
LA Times story reprinted in the MIT newspaper:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V117/N36/gore.36w.html
Gore's response, from CNN 3/3/97
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/03/03/gore.reaction/transcript.html
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander...
Don't let 'em tell you it doesn't matter!
April 13, 2007 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe RIM had a copy of those e-mails.
Until Wednesday, that is...
This guy has a theory
April 21, 2007 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
whoops, link stripped from previous comment:
http://dissentgovintent.blogspot.com/
April 21, 2007 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink