PS: Karl Rove, Karl Rove, Karl Rove

Remember whenDemocrats in Congress were concerned that in the effort to track terrorists, the NSA might intrude on the privacy of US citizens talking to terrorists overseas? Or might read emails from private citizens plotting jihad? This concern for privacy doesn't extend to employees of the Federal Government, apparently. Several months ago, our Most Malicious Congressman, Henry Waxman, issued a sort of pre-subpoena for all the emails on Mr. W's computer --together with those of every other political appointee of the Administration. The directive is that by order of Mr. Waxman, no political appointee may delete or transfer any email from his computer, lest Mr. Waxman should wish to read it and see if Karl Rove talked about politics to anyone.

• So if you accidentally mis-file something, you can't delete it.
• And if a speech or memo goes through multiple drafts, you can't delete the discarded drafts.

Recently this directive was extended to PCs as well, so Mr. W. is forbidden to delete any email, even from our home computer. Will Mr. Waxman provide him with a new PC when the memory's filled?

• If I were a Cabinet Secretary, I would direct my political appointees to comply with this request by "cc-ing" every blessed email directly to Mr. Waxman's office.
• Were I a political appointee, I would add the footer, "Karl Rove, Karl Rove, Karl Rove" to all my outgoing email --just to force Waxman to have to read messages such as, "Dear, don't forget to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home. PS: Karl Rove."

Your Democratic Congress in action, folks.

Update: Republicans can play this game, too. Here, Cong. Tom Davis has a temper-tantrum because an appointee complained about him (completely accurately as it turns out) in a private email.

Davis told Bloch that he wanted all e-mails Bloch has sent on his AOL account since Jan. 26 that mentioned the Hatch Act, Doan, Davis, Mica or any other government official or member of Congress.