Pajamas Media: In Focus: What McCain, Clinton and Obama Do Have In Common: Passport Breaches

March 21, 2008 9:29 AM

Now that every candidate’s passport file has been hacked by nosy State Department officials, can we drop the conspiracy theories? Of course not. Michael Weiss rounds-up blogger opinions.

by Michael Weiss

“The episodes have raised questions as to whether the actions by the Bush administration were politically motivated.” So MSNBC reports today in a piece disclosing that the three major candidates for president have had their passport files breached by a few contractors at the State Department, all of whom have either been fired or disciplined. (Trivia question number: Does it bode well for an already tendentious twig of the executive branch to have a man named Patrick Kennedy conducting the internal investigation of this mini-scandal?)

Previously, it had been reported by the Washington Times that only Obama’s file had been breached. Condoleezza Rice apologized to the Illinois senator personally, and Obama’s camp called the violation an “outrageous breach of security,” which it no doubt was. Apart from containing a person’s citizenship, age, place of birth, a passport file also contains his Social Security number, which can be used to trace credit reports and travel records.

Suspicion of fishiness arose immediately, with some blaming the Bushies, who’d do anything to derail a Democratic campaign, others blaming Clinton, who’d hire Karl Rove himself if she thought that’d secure the nomination. (Hillary’s camp has expressed curiosity about Obama’s senatorial itinerary, particularly in light of her unwilling release of the First Lady archives, a veritable Encyclopedia Britannica of doubt about what she claimed to have accomplished or facilitated in that role.)

But since Clinton and McCain’s files have also been hacked by the same bureaucratic voyeurs, wouldn’t that scupper any motive of politics? (Trivia question number two: Are State Department officials who might have been acting out of partisan skulduggery really clever enough to cover their asses by opening everyone’s file?)

Will Bunch at Attytood has uncovered the following:

The office that handles passports, consular affairs, is indeed run by a woman named Maura Harty, who’s a….wait for it — Clinton administration holdover. Remember, no one has implicated her or any State Department employees — the two people who were fired were contract workers.

Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee doesn’t see conspiracy behind the breaches:

I worked for a financial services company years ago, and trainers that would use the dummied copies of the accounts of certain internationally-known celebrity clients in orientation to keep the class awake. There was never any ill-will involved in using the client’s accounts, just a certain sort of stupid Stuart-ish “look what I can do!” voyeuristic element premised more on curiosity than malice.

And This Ain’t Hell… says:

If the Bush Administration was really behind it (and I can’t imagine many Bush supporters at the State Department) why wouldn’t they have done it long before now?… Maybe it’d just be easier to list those of us haven’t had their passport records breached. All ya’all are welcome to mine - steal my identity, too. Maybe you’ll have better luck with it than I have.

But Steven Benan at The Carpetbagger Report contends that a more sinister explanation still has legs:

That State Department staffers sought out confidential information about the major presidential candidates starts to look more like opposition research, and less like innocent prying. Given the Bush administration’s history of politicizing non-partisan government agencies, including the State Department, there’s no reason to extend the benefit of the doubt.

And John Cole at Balloon Juice gets meta:

While the chattering classes all look for nefarious reasons for these invasions, I will simply restate what I said last night- the real scandal is that our government has this much information stored about us. And yes, I am aware that private corporations have much the same information, and no, I am not happy about that, either.

Michael Weiss is the New York Editor of Pajamas Media. His blog is Snarksmith.

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Comments (11)

Charlie (Colorado) :

I think it's magical thinking anyway. Obama's having a bad week; what's easier to believe, that he just has flaws or that there's a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to defame him?

Mar 21, 2008 01:08 PM

Mike Perry :

Deep Throat's advice still holds true: "Follow the money." Given that the records of all three candidates were breeched, I suspect this was trolling for something juicy that could be sold to an opponent or to the press.

And it'd surprise me if there was much in any of the files. Hillary and George have been too visible for too long to have any travel secrets. Obama has been too insignificant until very recently for some high-ranking international thug to have courted him.

And in this case the other common rule in such matters, never call conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity, doesn't seem likely.

--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace

Mar 21, 2008 01:55 PM

william :

We have certainly fallen into a ridiculous place with the government. How ever this is to get he attention off the candidates. They are so inept. Hopefully we the citizens will stop these intrusions on our rights. You are right. That is he REAL story here!

Mar 21, 2008 03:12 PM

David Thomson :

The passport breach story should have appeared in the back pages. It is not ready for prime time! At the present moment, it appears that a couple of bored bureaucrats of minor status were merely satisfying their curiosity regarding some famous people. I would bet money they might have been even more interested in the applications of Britney Spears or Brad Pitt.

The real difference now is that the “alternative media” can shoot down the idiocy of the MSM in the early stages. Only a relatively short time ago, they would have ran numerous stories asking the question “Was the Bush administration behind these invasions of privacy? Are any of the bureaucrats friends of Karl Rove?” The MSM would never have offered any evidence. They would just relied on broad hints and innuendo. After a few weeks, these news stories would have caused Bush’s approval numbers to drop a couple of percentage points.

Mar 21, 2008 03:21 PM

Jack Okie :

Ye gods! These were not "officials" or bureaucrats, these were contract employees brought in to help with data entry of backlogged passport applications.

Mar 21, 2008 05:24 PM

tonynoboloney :

One of the contracted firms (TAC), has direct ties to the Obama campaign, via the Washington Post.

Mar 21, 2008 11:18 PM

RHM :

Good article. I too was annoyed at the "breaking analysis" that follows about 2 minutes after breaking news. Not surprisingly, the pundits knew exactly who it "had to be" and who it "couldn't have been". More and more people are wearing tin-foil hats each day.

Mar 22, 2008 05:44 AM

Alan :

I'd say the most likely conspiratorial explanation is that some opposition researcher approached the state-department workers and offered them a large pile of cash in exchange for the candidates' SSNs. Except I bet opposition researchers already have all the SSNs they want, and they probably know how to get them without making national headlines. A lot of companies don't seem to see a problem with using their customers' SSNs for internal identification purposes, so it can't be very hard to get a hold of them.

Mar 22, 2008 06:33 AM

gnubi :

Opposition research! What a bunch of nitwits. I'll bet serious $$ EVERY one of the snoops votes democrat. These were people who were just doing something because they could. Just nosy.

It would be so refreshing to have a candidate just laugh upon hearing the story and say "So what."

I heard this so-called data breach called 'horrible' by a fox talking head. We're going to have to invent a whole new vocabulary to describe the REALLY bad stuff after hearing this overblown rhetoric.

Mar 22, 2008 06:46 AM

Robert Craig III :

It starts to appears GW held over several of the Clinton appointees as a protective shield against attempts to bring down his administration. He kept enough rust nails to hold the corruption coffin lid open for the Clinton administration to fall back into.
The selective method for disclosure of these breaches has actually provided a long and stable supply of ammunition against some of the more serious attacks against his administration. Namely any attack fueled by the Clinton's. Now that GW is leaving the oval office I wonder what Clinton/Burgerlier contacts are being re-established and what for what reason. I have a feeling the remaining left over Clinton appointees in the Bush administration will be more of a problem for the Clinton's if the Obama camp cognates on the ties. It wouldn't be too strange for one attorney to go after another. It would be the WWF style of politics the liberal media has been waiting for.

Mar 22, 2008 08:57 AM

Rubicon :

Oh please folks. How much "Bush Derangement Syndrome" (BDS) can one promote, asserting multiple complex conspiracy theories all operating concurrently & in concert with each other plus additional nefarious purposes, before actual reason sets in?

This was a clerical screwup by contract employees giggling as they looked up info on "special " people.

And one must always remember there is a literal plethora of holdover Clintonista's running around almost every federal agency. Their actions have perhaps been the greatest source of information, gossip, rumor, & secret details, that have ever existed in this nation.

This is a non-story. Fox ran with it because if they had not, the liberal media (just about all but Fox) would have taken them to task if they ever found out Fox knew & said nothing!

Obama is using this to distract attention away from his association with his controversial preacher who has spent the past 17 or more years spewing hatred of America & to hide his association with an avowed communist whose associations with entities that want to destroy America, have not yet been fully examined.

Bush & his admin. have screwed up a number of things folks. But even he & they are not capable of doing all of the dirty tricks the rabid left want to tag them with. The holdover Clintonista's alone would have stymied 95% of those nefarious plans
before they could have been carried out!

Mar 22, 2008 11:04 AM

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In Focus: What McCain, Clinton and Obama Do Have In Common: Passport Breaches