Obama's Security Breach: It's Bush's Fault

The Washington Times reports a couple of computer contractors for the State Department accessed Barack Obama's passport records. The two were fired and one was disciplined.

The motive for the breaching so far appears to be nothing more than "idle curiosity" but the investigation continues. The Obama campaign reacted in typical political fashion by blaming the Bush Administration.

"(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," a campaign spokesman said.

Given that it was, in some sense, the Bush Administration that caught and fired these people, that's a pretty lame charge. What if it turns out that the two contract workers who violated their clearances were nothing that Obama fans who were curious about the comings and goings of their hero?

Nevemind, this is good for Obama, in so far as it will remind others that when it comes to such illegal snooping it was much worse during the Clinton Administraiton when hundreds of FBI files on prominent Republicans were discovered in the White House. Hillary was up to her neck in that scandal.

I think the most telling thing about this episode so far is what it says about the Obama campaign and its willingness to jump on any bit of bad news and twist it to their advantage. This is, of course, what political campaigns do. But given their candidate's high-minded, nuanced and impressive speech on race last week this all has a whiff of low-brow opportunism and demagougery.

Say, it isn't so O. But it does.