Recording of Martin by Eckersley Raises Even More Questions About Administration's Story

What to say about Tony Messenger's story today about Scott Eckersley's recording of the conversation with Ed Martin during which Eckersley was informed he'd been fired?  It's hard to do it justice via description, so here's an excerpt:

...an audio recording of the meeting in which the attorney was fired, combined with court documents and interviews, suggests that Eckersley did send e-mails to Blunt administration officials about e-mail retention, and that the seminal event in his firing was a confrontation with his direct supervisor at least partially over that issue. ...

...Eckersley explained it on the recording this way:

Eckersley: "This was about me sending an e-mail to you, which I've done several times, where things are being overlooked. This was me trying to say: We're saying this, and it's not that."

Martin: "You're not (expletive) right. And it's not your role, so "—

Eckersley: "How am I not right?"

Martin: "You're not right on any of this (expletive). You were told not to send e-mails to me and you decided to do it anyway. It's called insubordination to your direct supervisor. It doesn't matter if you get a revelation from God on what's going on in your life or anybody else's."

Take a hard look at that last quote from Martin.  He says to Eckersley, "You were told not to a send e-mails to me and you decided to do it anyway."  This would seem to suggest both that there had been previous discussions between Martin and Eckersley proscribing use of official email and that Martin probably had a pretty good idea that the emails either were or at some point would become public records. 

Of course, those facts would also belie the Blunt administration's institutional positions that Eckersley never discussed the email issue with them and that they didn't believe emails were public records that required retention.

As more facts surface, the thing most clear is that neither Blunt nor his top staff have been honest with the media or the public over the course of the entire affair.  Little wonder that mainstream publications are now raising the question of whether Matt Blunt ought to go ahead and resign.