E-mail and open records: Nothing but trouble for two state governors

Questions have arisen in Missouri about whether Gov. Matt Blunt’s staff is obligated to retain copies of e-mails. Of course they are, according to the state’s Attorney General, even though the staff currently is in the practice of routinely discarding them and claims they are not public documents.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, bloggers and the state Republican party continue on their quest to get copies of the emails sent by New Jersey govenor Jon Corzine to his former paramour, a labor organizer.

For background on the New Jersey case, see Corzine says emails should be private.

“I wish email had never been invented” is what one suspects they are thinking, belatedly.

Update: E-mail is also problematic for disgusting racists.