The Political Chase

More on WH visitors ruling

Following up on the federal judge’s ruling today that the White House must turn over its visitors log, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth…ordered the Secret Service to produce records within 20 days. However, there may be nothing to produce.

The judge, in a separate ruling Monday, said he lacked the authority to order the Secret Service to stop destroying its visitor records once copies were turned over to White House officials. But Lamberth noted the National Archives had to approve any destruction of the logs.

And the outlook could get bleaker. considering the administration’s spending on paper shredding has increased more than 600 percent since Bush took office, and as illustrated, it dramatically increased during the second term.

Graph by John Cook

John Cook reports the federal government spent $452,807 in 2000 for paper-shredding related costs. By 2006, the costs increased to $2.9 million, and by “halfway through 2007, the feds almost matched that number, with $2.7 million and counting.”

If the administration does not appeal today’s ruling, well…let’s just say maybe they didn’t feel like it was worth the effort — kind of like Scooter Libby’s appeal.

On a side note, look at the chart and consider the timing of these events. Invade Iraq in March 2003. By early 2004 it was pretty well established there were no WMD’s in Iraq. In July 2003, Bob Novak outed Valerie Wilson, prompting the CIA Leak Case. In 2005, the CIA Leak Case investigation exploded, culminating with Libby’s indictment in October. Also, in December 2005, the New York Times exposed the warrantless wiretapping. But there’s no correlation I’m sure. All just fun facts to know and tell.

Thanks to John Cook and Radar for the chart and metrics. Also h/t to Campus Progress.