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On his second day as White House counsel in January, Fred Fielding said little when representatives of the National Archives and Records Administration suggested during a courtesy meeting that he might want to reissue guidance to President Bush's aides about how they should preserve e-mail messages as presidential records.

Such reviews are supposed to come frequently, to keep pace with staff turnover in the Executive Office of the President; especially during an administration's second term, comings and goings prompt refreshers on everything from ethics requirements to security practices.

In terms of fresh faces and added muscle, the counsel's office is itself a good example: Fielding is a newcomer, and Bush now has 17 in-house attorneys, up from 14.

Fielding is Bush's third White House lawyer, following in the footsteps of Texas loyalists Harriet Miers and Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales issued Bush's first e-mail policies as a records advisory in 2001, taking cues from guidelines used during the Clinton administration and set out in a 17-page pamphlet that the Archives compiled in 2000 for use by the incoming administration.

Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel explained recently, "Employees are informed of the policy when they start work at the White House." And how is the policy described? "As you probably know, we don't share internal White House memos."

But sharing memos is exactly what House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has asked the White House to do. In a March 29 letter, Waxman told the president's counsel that the committee wants to see "all policies, guidance, and other communications provided to White House officials regarding the obligation to preserve e-mail records."

On April 4, Waxman asked the Republican National Committee to turn over e-mails sent to or received by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or other White House officials relating to the use of federal agencies or resources to help GOP candidates.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has requested that the White House and the RNC produce materials, including e-mails, relevant to Congress's examination of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.

National Journal previously reported that Rove and other officials frequently use RNC e-mail accounts instead of the White House system.

Asked on April 3 when he expected Fielding to respond to Congress, Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, told NJ that he did not know.

Waxman, Conyers, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., want to learn more about White House and RNC e-mail records in connection with a host of ongoing and potential investigations.

RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said on April 4, "We are in contact with the committee and are in the process of responding." A meeting between RNC representatives and congressional investigators is expected next week.

The RNC's policy, Stanzel said, is to delete e-mails every 30 days, except for the e-mails of White House aides "who use the political e-mail accounts the RNC has provided them." David Almacy, White House Internet and e-communications director, told Computerworld in March that the RNC's archive exception for White House e-mails began in 2004.

Almacy said that White House computers block access to personal or other e-mail accounts to provide security and to preserve records deemed by law to be presidential. That policy does not address the use of BlackBerrys or other portable electronic devices, whether they are personally owned or provided to White House officials by the RNC or others.

One former White House political aide said he vaguely recalled receiving guidance about sending e-mail on an RNC-provided BlackBerry and using a gwb43.com e-mail account, but he had clearer memories of getting "a billion and one" White House ethics briefings.

The e-mail instructions, from Sara Taylor, director of White House political affairs, were meant to help aides juggle dual sets of communications devices to comply with the Hatch Act and the Presidential Records Act, and to use the RNC equipment and accounts "only for political activity."

The aide said that much of the work in his office was by definition more political than official, including coordination with White House advance teams about presidential travel; use of White House equipment for events; and communication with Republican campaign committees and candidates.

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