Obama's Passport Files Illegally Breached

Are the Republicans already starting their "dirty tricks"? It sure looks that way. The State Department's passport files are confidential, and are available only on a need-to-know basis. Every regular and contract employee of the department knows this. In fact, their computers tell them that every time they log on.

But that didn't stop three "contract" employees from illegally accessing the files of Barack Obama. The files were viewed by employyees who no legitimate reason to do so on January 9, February 21 and March 14. Two of the employees were terminated and a third has been disciplined.

It is not known why the files were accessed. The State Department said it was just "imprudent curiosity" and that there was "no political motivation". I'd like to believe that, but the past history of Republicans and the Bush administration make me believe that is unlikely.

It's also strange that it took the State Department over two months from the first breach to tell Mr. Obama about it. Why on earth did it take so long? Is this just sheer incompetence, or was someone trying to hide something?

Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, was properly outraged. He said, "This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes. This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose, and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach."

This smells like a Karl Rove-type dirty trick. It makes me wonder if it's even possible for Republicans to go through an election without doing something illegal.

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Meanwhile, it looks like Clinton is again on the low road. While she has made a great show of staying above the melee about Obama and his former minister, her staff have not.

Members of Clinton's staff have been telling the superdelegates that Obama's minister makes him unelectable. This whole thing of Clinton saying one thing while her staff does something else is getting a little tiresome.

When reporters asked her about it, she didn't even bother to deny it. She just shrugged and went on to the next question. A couple of years ago, I respected Senator Clinton. That's getting harder to do with each day that passes.