The politics of e-mail

Apparently, government e-mails in Alaska get buried pretty deep inside the magical tubes, making for a costly exploration and excavation process. For example, the quoted price for copies of Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mails is $15.4 million, plus copying charges. And you thought oil drilling was a lucrative business.

Now, $15 million might at first sound unreasonable given that it cost less than $250,000 to renovate Alaska Sen. Ted Steven's home. But this is only an estimate. The real cost will be whatever the media end up paying their lawyers to win release of the e-mails in a court case that drag past Nov. 4.