Passport Files and the Candidates

Yesterday, Barack Obama received a gift. Today, he learned that he'll have to share it.

The Obama campaign could have milked the breach of Obama's passport file by State Department contractors to paint Obama as a victim, singled out by the evil government. The campaign could play into the paranoia of voters and push the corruption of government angle. More importantly, the new scandal could take the issue of his connection with the racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and all of Obama's accompanying missteps off the front burner.

However, with the revelation that the passport files of Hillary Clinton and John McCain were also breached, Obama no longer has exclusive rights to that particular victimhood.

WASHINGTON -- State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — and the department's inspector general is investigating.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.

The incidents raise questions as to whether the information was accessed for political purposes and why two contractors involved in the Obama search were dismissed before investigators had a chance to interview them. It recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. At the time, Clinton was challenging President George H.W. Bush.

McCormack said one of the individuals who accessed Obama's files also reviewed McCain's file earlier this year. This contract employee has been reprimanded, but not fired. The individual no longer has access to passport records, he said.

"I can assure you that person's going to be at the top of the list of the inspector general when they talk to people, and we are currently reviewing our (disciplinary) options with respect to that person," McCormack said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with all three candidates on Friday and expressed her regrets. In the meantime, State Department officials headed to Capitol Hill to brief the candidates' staffs.

...In Clinton's case, an individual last summer accessed her file as part of a training session involving another State Department worker. McCormack said the one-time violation was immediately recognized and the person was admonished.

Obama's records were accessed without permission on three separate occasions — Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and as recently as last week, on March 14.

McCormack declined to name the companies that employed the contractors, despite demands by a senior House Democrat that such information is in the public interest.

"At this point, we just started an investigation," he said. "We want to err on the side of caution."

McCain, who was in Paris on Friday, said any breach of passport privacy deserves an apology and a full investigation.

"The United States of America values everyone's privacy and corrective action should be taken," he said.

It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth, which is required when a person fills out a passport application.

Aside from the file, the information could allow critics to dig deeper into the candidates' private lives. While the file includes date and place of birth, address at time of application and the countries the person has traveled to, the most important detail would be their Social Security number, which can be used to pull credit reports and other personal information.

It's the Social Security number, stupid.

Get access to a person's SSN and you can tap into a wellspring of personal information.

This reminds me of the scandal involving the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer.

In July of 2005, Lauren B. Weiner, a staffer working for Schumer, sought the Social Security number of Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and U.S. Senate Republican candidate. She used it to access his credit report and personal financial records. She set up a fake email account and answered a series of questions to impersonate Steele, all to obtain his financial information. It was an incredible breach of privacy by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Now, of course, Steele was running for the Senate, not to be President of the United States, but there wasn't a Congressional investigation into the activities of the Committee chaired by Schumer.

Clearly, what Weiner did was illegal. She managed to cut a deal. Under a plea agreement in U.S. District Court, Weiner was sentenced to do 150 hours of community service within a year, avoiding any jail time.

Obama is demanding a Congressional investigation into the breach of his passport file.

Certainly, there should be an investigation into the inappropriate accessing of files of citizens.

The State Department said the Justice Department would be monitoring the probe in case it needs to get involved.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the case has not yet been referred to the Justice Department for investigation, and indicated prosecutors likely would wait until the State Department's inspector general concludes its inquiry. But Mukasey did not rule out the possibility of the Justice Department taking an independent look at the passport breach.

Was the breach just "imprudent curiosity"? It's possible. It's also possible that it was done for reasons other than to satisfy curiosity.

In any case, the improper viewing of personal files is unacceptable.