Doesn't the mere fact that significant portions of the Purge-Gate e-record are in the RNC e-system prove the firings were at least partly political?

A "smoking gun" in this regime? Where Cheney shooting victim Harry
Whittington had to apologize publicly for, you know, getting shot?

Howie and I were e-chatting this morning about the blossoming White House e-mail scandal, and reached easy agreement that if there's anything truly incriminating in the e-record--in any e-mail system--we don't expect it to see the light of day, one way or another.

Let's at least be grateful, though, that Democratic committee chairmen like Rep. Henry Waxman and Sen. Pat Leahy are making it clear that "Sorry, no can do" won't be accepted as an answer to e-document requests. Go get 'em, guys!

While we wait to see what materializes, and continue sorting through the massive document dumps already made from the White House e-mail system (which is to say the only one that's legal for policy-related e-schmoozing), might I venture one screamingly obvious point? Let's take it in baby steps:

(1) The White House says there were no political considerations involved in the decisions to replace those U.S. attorneys.

(2) The White House also admits that significant portions of the relevant e-discussions took place, not in the White House e-mail system officials are supposed to use for government business, but in the Republican National Committee system, and perhaps even in more private ones. (This is at best improper and more likely illegal. So what're you gonna do, call a cop? Hey, why not?)

(3) Now, it's altogether appropriate that political business be rigorously confined to the RNC system. After all, wouldn't we be howling if officials were doing political business via gov't e-mail?

(4) However, doesn't the mere fact that so much of the crucial e-trail in Purge-Gate leads right smack into the RNC e-network show pretty conclusively that those decisions were in significant part political?

Of course, even if we finally get access to the RNC-system e-mails, and they finally give us evidence of Karl Rove's role in the whole Purge-Gate enterprise (is there anyone who doesn't think he was squarely in the middle of it?), in these days when there is no reality and only spin, is there any longer any meaningful concept of a "smoking gun"? Not even--to take the metaphor literally--the one with which the Veeper shot his old hunting buddy. Don't forget that the poor guy wound up having to apologize publicly for getting shot.