Two Sets of Books

Bumped and updated

Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake takes on the case of the Bush White House's reportedly widespread use of RNC and personal email and phone accounts to hide "sensitive" information from future production -- a move that may both violate the Presidential Records Act and result in a waiver of any potential executive privilege that could have protected these emails and phone records.

Update:

The dog ate my homework! (via TPM)

WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

Congressional investigators looking into the administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors already had the nongovernmental e-mail accounts in their sights because some White House aides used them to help plan the U.S. attorneys' ouster. Democrats were questioning whether the use of the GOP-provided e-mail accounts was proof that the firings were political.

Democrats also have been asking if White House officials are purposely conducting sensitive official presidential business via nongovernmental accounts to get around a law requiring preservation - and eventual disclosure - of presidential records. The announcement of the lost e-mails - a rare admission of error from the Bush White House at a delicate time for the administration's relations with Democratically controlled Capitol Hill - gave new fodder for inquiry on this front.

"This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "I am deeply disturbed that just when this administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information."

To keep us from losing the forest for the trees, Josh Marshall brings it back to where it all begins: bogus allegations of voter fraud intended to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters.