When you feel so passionately about your cause, you are bound to shed any trace of decency:
Two members of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have resigned after admitting they obtained Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele’s credit report.
Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), said the two staffers told committee officials in July what they had done. He said the committee began an internal investigation and determined it was an isolated incident.
“The DSCC immediately ensured that Mr. Steele’s credit report was not used or disseminated to anyone,” Mr. Singer said, “It also reported this incident to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.”
I am sure we can collectively come up with dozens of examples of Republican staffers doing similar things, so let us not get into a he-said/she-said fight. Let’s just note that this sort of crap has got to stop.
Lines
Then why post this one? Why make an issue out of it?
Why not point out that the DSCC is the one that pursued the issue, not the FEC? Why not point out that the Democratic handling of this issue was professional and sends a good message to other Democrats?
John Cole
Umm. Because it just happened, and is what generally passes as ‘News.’ And I thought the excerpt was pretty clear in what happened, and the attendant link clear.
Eural
Why not take advantage of this news to start a new paradigm in our waste-land of politics – when you get caught doing something wrong you resign immediately and no longer participate in elected office (in addition to facing whatever criminal charges are involved)? Oh, wait…our entire political infrastructure would implode within hours of actually having to hold to objective standards of right and wrong. But it might tackle our biggest problem in the US today – the welfare receipiants we like to call “politicians.”
Ben
This is actually way less sleazy than Rove getting the sec state lawyer in Texas fired. Guess being a lying sack of shit applies to everyone but Rove.
Vlad
Well-done by the DSCC. Nice to see that some people in Washington still understand the concept of accountability.
Zach
How do you think the DSCC guys got the credit report? These credit reporting agencies are sieves. That is more of an issue to me than over-zealous oppo research.
Dantheman
John,
Let me re-phrase Lines’ question. If the DSCC acted in a professional and above-board manner, why are you posting this under “Democratic Stupidity”?
Nikki
Just what I was gonna say.
norbizness
But I wanna know whether somebody paid their cable bill late in 1983!
Vladi G
You had cable in 1983? I think all we had was ON TV.
Mike S
Easiest thing in the world. Getting a credit report is almost easier than getting an unlisted number.
Both issues are equally important to me. I’m happy with what the DSCC has done and hope they continue in this fasion with anyone and everyone who resorts to these kinds of sleazy tatics.
Thanks for posting it John.
Steve S
Hey, at least these guys were fired, and that’s the last you’ll ever hear of them too.
If they’d been Republicans, they would have gotten promotions and plum assignments leading up PACs. Like that guy who hacked into the Senate email system for the Republican judicial committee.
Shygetz
Kick the bums out. Democratic corruption pisses me off even more than Republican corruption just because (in some cases) I voted for these guys, so I am kinda responsible.
Jack Roy
Naw, the public has the right to know about whether their elected representatives were late on the overdue fees for “Booty Call” from Blockbusters because they paid with a maxed-out Visa. Otherwise we’d have to decide elections based on, you know, the deficit ‘n’ stuff.
DougJ
Maryland Governor Ehrlich’s staffers would never do something like that.
Kimmitt
They got caught, they got fired. Sounds like a very different model of accountability than the way this country is currently run.
CalDevil
Not sure if the story ends with these firings. Aren’t their federal laws about this sort of thing?
jobiuspublius
I see your stolen credit report(which was discovered in house , followed by an internal investigation, refered to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and did not provoke the handing out of Medal’s of Freedom) and I raise you Richard “I am not a crook only their ring leader” Nixon. I look forward to raising you Norquist, Delay, Safavian, Ney, Abramoff, …
In the mean time I also have other classics like Ronny “Iran/contra who?” Reagan, Ollie North, …
Zifnab
The thing is that yes, we are dealing with politicians here. Many politicians play hardball and use dirty pool irrespective of philosophical alignment. But how are they dealt with? Two DSCC staffers commit a crime and they’re out on their asses. I don’t see any cover up or backpedeling on ethics among the Democrats.
Had they been Republicans, they’d have been pardoned by the governor, praised by their co-workers, and promoted for going above and beyond the call of duty. And anyone who came against them would be part of the left-wing media attack machine damaging the credibility of two men with loving families and honest careers.
John Cole makes a valid point by posting this: Democrats have their fair share of sleazy politicians, but at least they clean up their own messes.
Another Jeff
Yeah, genius. they got caught in July and were paid until the end of August.
And one of the people who obtained it used to work for Media Matters. How precious.
MnZ
The DSCC was forced to act.
Why? Because one thing that credit reports show is the last few times that it was pulled. In other words, if Mr. Steele would have pulled his credit report (as you can do these days for free), he would have seen that someone had pulled his credit report without authorization.
He likely would have reported it, and any investigation would have probably had lead back to the DSCC.
So, there are really two questions. How long did it take for the DSCC to report the incident to the FBI? And why did the DSCC destroy evidence relevant to a criminal investigation?