So let's be clear about the root of the problem: government regulations demand that public officials have recordable conversations as part of their duties. This

So let's be clear about the root of the problem: government regulations demand that public officials have recordable conversations as part of their duties. This allows openness and inspection. (It also allows political shenanigans) It's a very, very similar situation to where we are with government spying on the citizens. I don't find those cases to be similar at all. Government officials are public servants granted a public trust. While there are certainly circumstances and topics that require confidentiality for some period of time, those officials' conduct of government business has to be subject to oversight, whether by Congress or the public. There's a case to be made that record-keeping requirements are overly onerous, and encourage difficult-to-monitor, potentially insecure side channels like this one. But that government communications of our top officials should be private? I don't think so.