Sometimes The Signs Are All There...

... and you either don't see them or you choose to ignore them.

There are times in your life when — regardless of whether you are deeply religious, or an out-and-out athiest — you receive a signal from above that maaaaybe you need to take a step back and think about things for a minute; the kind of signal that should send a shiver down the spine of any normal person; the kind of signal that says that God is really trying to tell you something.

In 1973, during the Watergate hearings, the White House was forced to hand over audio recordings that were made between President Nixon and visitors in the Oval Office. When the tapes were examined, it was discovered that (damn! rats! of all the luck!) what might have been one of the most important conversations in hudreds of hours of recordings — a conversation between Nixon and his Chief of Staff — was accidentally erased.

Total time missing: 18 minutes.

In 2007, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into the firings of U.S. Attorneys, the Department of Justice was forced to hand over all e-mails that were made regarding U.S. Attorneys. When the e-mails were examined, it was discovered that (damn! rats! of all the luck!) what might have been one of the most important periods of the entire e-mail collection — the period of time right before the U.S. Attorneys were fired — was accidentally missing.

Total time missing: 18 days.

(I'm guessing that the DOJ just needs some time to — how shall I put this? — "correct a few spelling errors" in that particular group of e-mails before passing them along to the Senate Judiciary Committee.)

Yeah. Uh-huh. This is going to end well for the White House.