Missouri's Republican Governor Matt Blunt, and Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon are political opponents, and although -- as many readers pointed out -- Blunt bowed out of the governor's race earlier this year, Blunt and Nixon have been engaged in a battle over e-mail retention policies. According to a release from Blunt's office, Nixon has attacked Blunt for lack of an  e-mail retention policy, while Nixon had no specific e-mail retention policy of his own. Nixon only implemented a specific e-mail retention policy on January 1, 2008, said the Blunt release, months after he launched political attacks against the Governor's Office on the issue.

Last November, said the release, Blunt announced the creation of a permanent e-mail retention system requiring every e-mail to be saved forever. Nixon has refused to join the system, says Blunt, and he and his office has refused to save all of his e-mails.