Right and wrong

When asked yesterday about a previous statement by White House spokeswoman Dana Perino that some White House e-mails are indeed missing, Fratto demurred. "I'm not sure what was said on that," he said. "I could tell you today, though, that we have no evidence and we have no way of showing that any e-mail at all are missing."

Of course, Fratto is mostly wrong. There's plenty of evidence there are missing e-mails, particularly when you can be virtually certain e-mails were exchanged but there are no copies now available. That's certainly evidence.

However, there is one sense in which Fratto is right. If all the e-mails were destroyed and no one will admit to writing e-mails, there is no way of proving that any are missing. It's a bit like trying to prove murder when you don't have a body. Indeed, I think that's what they're counting on.