The e-mail is in one of those tubes

Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is having none of it. He's more computer savvy than the Republicans believe he is.

The White House's claim that e-mails sent on a Republican Party account might have been lost was challenged Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who quipped that even his teenage neighbor could find them.

"They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Leahy shouted from the Senate floor as the dispute over the firing of federal prosecutors continued at a high pitch.

"You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

But, you know, the White House staff is just trying so hard to find those darned missing e-mails.

White House officials insisted the administration was making a genuine effort to recover any missing e-mails that had been sent on an account sponsored by the Republican National Committee.

"I understand his point, but he's wrong," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"We're being very honest and forthcoming," she added. "I hope that he would understand the spirit in which we have come forward and tried to explain how we screwed up our policy and how we're working to fix it."

Well, perhaps they're not trying hard enough. Or maybe they're trying too hard. But, you know, if the accounts were through the Republican National Committee there's a really good chance that all those emails went through the RNC file servers which were probably running, oh... say, Microsoft Exchange Server, just as an example. Even on an RNC Blackberry, the traffic is going through a server... somewhere.

And now all that traffic is deleted?

No problem. Go to this place and put in a rush order. Buy all of the recovery programs offered. It will still be cheaper than a Halliburton no-bid contract. Get a warrant. Better yet, don't bother. Just declare that you're looking for terraists and get a warrant later on... after you've got what your looking for.

Done.

And, if that doesn't work, the NSA may be able to help.

Do the Republicans really think everyone is dumb enough to believe the "internet ate my email" story?

Sorry. I didn't mean to ask that.