GOP Staffer Suspended for Computer Improprieties

Special Report | 11/25/03 | FNC

[dep]

A Republican Senate Judiciary Committee staff member has been suspended with pay after he admitted that he improperly gained access to "secure committee computers," Fox News Channel reports.

Whether the staffer is the person who leaked numerous memos in which Democrats on the committee plotted to turn toe current filibuster of judicial nominees for political advantage was not stated.

An angry Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch denounced the staffer's action, saying that senators expect their computers to be secure and calling the staffer's action "entirely unacceptable."

[Yo-Yo]

It works this time. How freakin' weird is that?

It happened to me on another thread as welll. Must have been a temporary server hic-up.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Wow. All of a sudden NOW the memos are breaking news. Go figure.

[dep]

wrong memos. this is the judiciary committee -- the memos were fat teddy describing how the democrats were opening up veto power to any dimwitted leftist cell that had a checkbook. it is not the intelligence committee memo that was leaked to sean.

[Mo1]

You break the law, you get punished.

I don't think I said the person shouldn't in my post

[deport]

Hatch handled this poorly.

---

I don't know who the staffer worked for..... Do you? My guess is that many of the committee staff work for someone other than Hatch or Leahy... The article such as it is doesn't indicate anything yet other than that Hatch was mad.

[EllaMinnow]

Just like Laci Peterson was the big story last Christmas, the missing girl in North Dakota will be this year's Thanksgiving story.

[Pukin Dog]

I saw Hatch's announcement on Fox. It was one of his senior staffers.

[Mo1]

Yeah. Why doesn't Hatch attack the RATS with the same gusto?

Because this isn't the time to do that .. and for the record, he has spoken up about the contents of the memos

[Timesink]

The problem is that this allows the Democrats to frame the Republicans as willing to do anything to win, and to compare this to the Plumbers with Watergate. It will only resonate with the media and Bush haters, but it will get major airplay, unless we get another favor from Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant or Scott Peterson over the weekend.

It doesn't really matter whether we get help from Michael Jackson or anyone else. It's Thanksgiving, and nobody's going to be paying attention at all no matter what. The only thing anyone's going to be talking about is football and Christmas shopping.

As for the Plumbers comparison, the RATS had better think long and hard before going down that road, considering the looming Anthony Pellicano scandal that stands a very good chance of exploding next year, just as the campaigns get underway in force ... a scandal that will blow up in the RATS' faces and leave the GOP unscathed.

[doug from upland]

Okay, who has a new job for him. Liz, I want the interview.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

If this person did, in fact, leak that infamous memo, I'd say he is a hero.

The Democrats, who laud the leaker of the Pentagon Papers, should certainly have to agree, eh?

[deport]

A little more background info.........

---

Senate GOP backs leak investigation


By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Senate Republicans have thrown their support behind the investigation into how internal memos written by Democratic staffers on the Judiciary Committee wound up in the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times. Since the memos surfaced — revealing how Democrats planned with liberal interest groups to block President Bush's judicial nominees — Democrats have accused Republican staffers of hacking into their computers, downloading the 14 memos and leaking them to reporters.

Republicans had said there was no proof that the memos were downloaded and suggested they might have been left somewhere by a careless Democratic staffer. But in a private meeting yesterday of Republican Judiciary Committee members, senators were told that security barriers protecting Democrats' Judiciary Committee computer network had, in fact, been left open to cross-party snooping as recently as April.

"It was a problem that left Republican documents vulnerable as well," said one Republican staffer who did not attend the meeting but was aware of the computer malfunction. "Any twentysomething could figure it out."

Democrats said two of the leaked memos had never been printed. In one of those memos, a staffer to Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, had typed wide-ranging notes to himself calling Mr. Bush's nominees "Nazis."

The second document was an unused draft of talking points Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, had planned to use during a Democratic caucus meeting.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William H. Pickle has begun a full investigation. During the weekend, Mr. Pickle had the Judiciary Committee's computer server and backup tapes seized.

"It's a major case of theft," Mr. Durbin said. "It's no different than if someone had broken into my Senate office, gotten into my filing cabinets and stolen the memos that way."

Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee share the same computer server, which stores information for anyone who logs onto the network. Access to the files for various offices is limited and access across party lines is supposed to be strictly prohibited.

Republicans blamed the security problem on a glitch dating to May 2001, when Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent, giving Democrats control over the Senate and Judiciary Committee. When that happened, control over the Judiciary Committee servers also switched hands and new computer technicians — unfamiliar with the system — were hired. The problem was discovered and fixed in April, Republicans said.

Before the closed-door meeting yesterday, several Republicans were furious with their leadership and Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, for entertaining any notion of investigating how the documents were leaked. In a Friday letter to Mr. Pickle, several Republican members of the Judiciary Committee voiced opposition to the investigation and demanded that the inquiry be limited.

Mr. Hatch said yesterday he is in a tight spot between outraged Republicans and angry Democrats. "I'm going to do whatever is right."

Like many other Republicans, Mr. Hatch vowed not to let the investigation interfere with broadcasting the substance of the memos. In particular, Republicans were shocked to read a plan outlined by a Kennedy staffer to stall a Bush nominee to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until after that panel had decided the University of Michigan affirmative action case.

"Anytime someone feels like confidentiality has been violated, that has to be dealt with. I want their concerns satisfied," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican and a Judiciary Committee member. "That said, I will also be their worst nightmare when it comes to what these memos said. I will make sure the substance of the memos is pointed out over and over and over."

[deport]

I saw Hatch's announcement on Fox. It was one of his senior staffers.

---

uh oh.......

[Timesink]

wrong memos. this is the judiciary committee -- the memos were fat teddy describing how the democrats were opening up veto power to any dimwitted leftist cell that had a checkbook. it is not the intelligence committee memo that was leaked to sean.

Got it. Thanks, dep!

This is a tough one. Accessing that which does not belong to you is wrong, without question ... but what if that something is proof of hideous abuse of power?

[jmstein7]

Lindsay Graham of South Carolina promised to be the Democrats' "worst nightmare when it comes to what these memos said. I will make sure the substance of the memos is pointed out over and over and over."

Help Lindsay Graham Get the SUBSTANCE of the Dem Memos out!!!

Click here!

[jmstein7]

Lindsay Graham of South Carolina promised to be the Democrats' "worst nightmare when it comes to what these memos said. I will make sure the substance of the memos is pointed out over and over and over."

Help Lindsay Graham Get the SUBSTANCE of the Dem Memos out!!!

Click here!

[L.N. Smithee]

I recall Bernie Ward once told his audience a story of how he and other staffers for Barbara Boxer went into file rooms without authorization, resulting in Boxer's first media coup -- the discovery of coffee makers sold to the military for thousands of dollars.

[jmstein7]

Lindsay Graham of South Carolina promised to be the Democrats' "worst nightmare when it comes to what these memos said. I will make sure the substance of the memos is pointed out over and over and over."

Help Lindsay Graham Get the SUBSTANCE of the Dem Memos out!!!

Click here!

[b4its2late]

They should give him twice the pay to work twice the time to get as many memos from the dems that he can get!

[StriperSniper]

Ping!