"IMPRUDENT CURIOUSITY": State Department Employees Fired for Viewing Obama's Passport Info

Two State Department employees have been fired for improperly (read: illegally) viewing Senator Obama's passport files. The offenses occurred on three separate dates, Jan. 9, Feb. 21, and Mar. 14, and in three separate offices across the country. The employees from the first two incidents have been terminated. The employee in the third incident is in disciplinary proceedings.

By no means am I trying to offer up some conspiracy theory. If the Clintons or anyone else wanted access to Obama's private information, I'm sure they have much more nefarious ways of getting to it. (Skull and Bones, anyone?) Besides, how many State Department employees probably do this all the time? I'm sure plenty of water-cooler conversation has centered around the passport files of Brad Pitt.

For the time being, hopefully this will shift the news cycle away from the tiresome chatter about Rev. Wright.

UPDATE: Obama, Tancredo Criticized for Foreign Policy Remarks

Senator Barack Obama and Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) were both criticized this week by the U.S. State Department and by the government of Pakistan for their foreign policy comments.

• Response from Pakistan
• Response from the U.S. State Department

Certainly Obama's comments about Pakistan were a dramatic departure from his previous foreign policy rhetoric, but they were not even in the same galaxy as Tancredo's asinine remarks.

The republican run State Department is willing to sacrifice a pawn like Tom Tancredo in an effort to slander Barack Obama. Let's face it--Obama's stance on Pakistan, while bold, is nowhere near Tancredo's notion that we ought to nuke Muslim holy sites. In fact, I shudder to even mention them in the same sentence, even the same paragraph.

Let me try that again.

Obama's foreign policy is bold, if perhaps a bit too conservative for my taste.

Tancredo's foreign policy is less policy and more the ranting of an attention deprived bigot.

Obviously the republicans fear Obama as the candidate most capable of swinging moderate Republican voters and independents. Otherwise, why lump Obama's proposal in the same pile as Tancredo's drivel?

I suppose we just have to get used to the idea of the Bush administration meddling with this election, even if it means castigating one of their third-tier candidates in an effort to get at Obama.

As always, your comments are encouraged.