April 15, 2005 | Bush Not Emailing It In

President Bush told a gathering of newspaper editors that he doesn't email his daughters because he's worried his email would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act, according to this Reuters story.

But when it comes to e-mail, Bush said he avoids it because "everything is investigated in Washington" and as a result "we're losing a lot of history, not just with me, but with other presidents as well."

As a result, he does not use this form of communication to talk to his twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

"I don't want you reading my personal stuff," he told the editors.

"There has got to be a certain sense of privacy. You know, you're entitled to how I make decisions. And you're entitled to ask questions, which I answer. I don't think you're entitled to be able to read my mail between my daughters and me," he said.

Now, I have no idea how this was received by his audience, but any reporter familiar with FOIA should be laughing.

First, the White House is mostly, and the President totally, exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Second, even if he were not, no FOIA officer would ever release an email sent from a government employee to his or her daughter, unless it were about giving her a no-bid contract to run nightclubs in Iraq.

You just don't get that kind of personal information with a FOIA -- it would fall under exemptions.

Frankly, it's a lame answer to the current problems with FOIAs.

(Though I would like here to publicly thank the FOIA officers at the Social Security Administration for their recent work.)

And, Bush should know, or someone should tell him, that he has more to fear from Mossad snooping on his emails than he does from the few reporters willing to go through the hassle of filing FOIAs that too often result in pages of redacted nothingness.

Posted by Ryan Singel at April 15, 2005 09:53 AM

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