Leftover work for the next president:

— Iraq

— Economy

— Find lost e-mails

OK, so the last item won't receive as much attention as the first two, but according to a White House memo, the next commander in chief will play a role in a mini-drama over the Bush Administration and e-mails.

Here's a briefing on the dispute that will water the mouths of political junkies and techno geeks. Here's my condensed version:

The federal government is suppose to archive its e-mail. The Bush Administration has had trouble doing this, it says, because of technical problems related to converting to new technology. A couple groups sued to force the archiving.

In the middle of all this, a federal judge ruled the White House Office of Administration did not have to respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, even though the White House itself does.

Now, we are hearing there is a plan to recovery up to 225 days of e-mails from 2002 and 2003 but the recover will run into 2009, leaving the issue for the next president.

-- nc

Labels: Candidates, FOIA