Posted on 09/12/2006 5:15:39 PM PDT by ARealMothersSonForever
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Democratic rival acknowledged Tuesday that it downloaded — and leaked to the media — a recording of a private meeting in which the governor described a Hispanic legislator as having a "very hot" personality.
But Cathy Calfo, campaign manager for Democrat Phil Angelides, said the campaign had done nothing wrong because the file was available publicly on the governor's Web site.
"No one hacked," Calfo said at a news conference to address the role played by the Angelides campaign, first reported by The Sacramento Bee. "They accessed information that was available to the public."
Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said someone would have had to snoop to find the audio file.
"The file that was leaked to the Los Angeles Times was in a private area of the governor's server not accessible to the public without manipulation of information," he said.
Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said the sound file was stored in a password-protected area. She said she forwarded the Internet Protocol address used to download the file to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating.
Calfo said she was unhappy that two campaign staffers had passed the audio clip to the Times without her knowledge. Angelides did not know about it, either, she said.
"We're looking into it now," she said. "Am I happy? No."
Earlier Tuesday, Schwarzenegger campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson called on Angelides to "denounce the unethical actions taken on his behalf" and accused him of trying to smear the governor. Schwarzenegger is seeking re-election in November.
The recording of the governor's comments caused a minor controversy, with some Democrats complaining bitterly and others saying the remarks were playful and not offensive.
The recording was made during a speech-writing session in the governor's office last March. In it, Schwarzenegger and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, speculate lightheartedly about the ethnic background of state Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia.
After they chat about whether she is Cuban or Puerto Rican, Schwarzenegger says: "They are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."
With Garcia by his side, the governor apologized for his remarks on Friday, saying he cringed when he read them. Garcia said she was not offended.
Schwarzenegger, who was in Los Angeles on Tuesday to sign a bill raising the minimum wage, said of the controversy: "I don't really want to interfere with all this little, trivial things."
Asked whether the recording could have been on a public part of the governor's Web site, Schwarzenegger said, "Let the experts deal with that."
___
Associated Press writer Christina Almeida in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
As I recall she is a rather attractive older woman...
Sorry for the dupe. Please pull.
def two diff things.
Paging Bob Mule Holand
Uh huh. Then why didn't you release it yourself instead of leaking it to the LA Times? And why is the Times refusing to identify its "confidential source"?
The man is going down, bigtime.
BTW, wasn't this a closed door meeting? If so, they violated public meeting laws I would guess.
All that I know is that if you or I run a password cracker on a government machine, it will get a 10 year sentence. Even if it is a 1 digit password.
I'm sure the MSM will play it that way. /sarcasm
No hacking, cracking or theft involved. The file was available to the public, much the same as personal correspondence throw in the trash.
There is still the matter of who told the Angelides campaign how to follow the trail, once on the server. Lots of suspects. Lots of Democrats on the governor's staff.
I thought it was a closed door session? If it was, there is an issue of legality.
That was a very rapid investigation, Inspector. I forgot that a Dim could never fall under any scrutiny. Stupid Governor. If only he had kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened.
"According to the San Jose Mercury News, Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said in a statement that the files were stored "in a password-protected area of the governor's office network computer system," and should not have been accessible to outsiders."
yitbos
"No hacking, cracking or theft involved. The file was available to the public, much the same as personal correspondence throw in the trash."
What are you talking about. It says above the file was in a password protected area of the server.
The Democrats and the MSM were fit to be tied, and Manny Miranda lost his job, but here, with Dems at fault, it's very different.
""The file that was leaked to the Los Angeles Times was in a private area of the governor's server not accessible to the public without manipulation of information," he said."
Not done by me.
The terms sneaking and bsaically, located in the seventh paragraph of Jon's frustrated tirade, outline the results of the initial investigation conducted by the governor's staff.
Someone left a back door open. Oversight or plan is a key concern of the CHP investigation. Plenty of suspects on the governor's staff.
I agree with that sentiment. Regardless, information that had a reasonable expectation to remain private was published into the public domain. Anyone that has been bound by a non-disclosure agreement or has had a contract to maintain a private server or database knows the rules. A government machine changes the rules to criminal laws. Unless one is really convinced that the whole Watergate thing was a minor trespass because someone had a key and did not kick the door in.
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