Republican Senator Frist Staffer to Resign Over Leak

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=703&e=4&u=/ap/20040205/ap_on_go_co/judiciary_memos

WASHINGTON - One of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's key staffers has resigned because of an investigation into how Republicans gained access to Democratic memos concerning opposition to President Bush (news - web sites)'s judicial nominees, a Senate source told The Associated Press.


Manuel Miranda, who worked for the Tennessee Republican on judicial nominations, has been on leave since earlier this month because of the investigation into how Democratic memos stored on a computer server shared by Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) members ended up in GOP hands.


But Miranda, a former GOP Judiciary staffer who transferred to Frist's leadership office, has now resigned, said the source on the condition of anonymity.


Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, began the investigation in November after Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., protested what they said was the theft of the memos from their servers. The memos, concerning political strategy on blocking confirmation of several of President Bush's judicial nominations, were obtained and reported on by The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times.

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[booksenkatz]

1. I didn't see the word "staffer" in your title at first

and I think I soiled myself.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. Republicans!

I hate those SNEAKY BASTARDS!

[wabeewoman]

2. I hope charges are next.

Notice the change in the democrats since they found out about this. Seems they are all pissed and likely don't feel so helpless. I'm sure they wondered like we did, how the repugs were always a step ahead of them. Now we know that much of rove's 'political genus' was just plain lying, sneaking and stealing.

[polmaven]

6. This is typical R tactics

It is nothing more than e-Watergate.....exactly the same premise.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

3. He's Just The Fall Guy-Frist Damn Well Knew

what was going on...

[Gman]

4. Sure Frist knew

and he got regular briefings as appropriate. Why else would they do it?

To think otherwise is absolutely stupid.

[xxqqqzme]

9. my first thought when

I read the headline - oh, they found someone 2 fall on his sword. Wonder what he was promised in return?

add: let us keep manuel's name on the short list to show up as staffer 2 Hughes on the committee to re-select.

[demnan]

7. I'm sure this has happened before

Security on Capitol Hill is notoriously lax. Committee Systems Administrators and other computer personnel are usually picked by the Majority party and are under a lot of pressure politically.

[CityDem]

8. We are not pristine in this matter

Frist is throwing some low level staffer overboard in an attempt to make the unauthorized issue access go away. Classic political move to appease the media that a significant action has been taken to solve the problem. However, expect the repubs to start hitting hard on the content of the memos which does not paint a favorable light on the actions of the democrats on the judiciary committee. Holding up Estrada because he is a "latino" and may be on the fast track to the supreme court will be used in senate elections in 2004. Holding up nominees to the 6th Circuit Court until the Michigan affirmative aciton case was decided - big ethical no no.

Most of this is inside the beltway stuff that average folks never even notice. But, expect the repubs to be very agressive this year on the judicial nominee issue, especially close to the election. It surely was an issue that Bush* and GOP senate candidates used in 2002.

[waywest]

11. nice paint job

nt

[revcarol]

12. City Dem, I think you have fallen for some of the Repug line.

Estrada was not opposed because he was Latino. Several Latino appointments were approved, with full knowledge and cooperation of Democrats.
Estrada is a total right wing zealot who believes in letting his "convictions" trump the law.He takes campaign contributions from corporations who have cases pending before him, and guess what, those corporations ALWAYS won. Corruption exemplified.

NOT having super-conservative-zealots who couldn't follow the law and be fair will ALWAYS be an issue.

Surprised to find the Republican point of view so well represented.

[Cocoa]

13. expect the repugs to start hitting hard?

it's not exactly a secret that they intend to use this, although Frist's stupid marathon didn't seem to go over well, and Bush himself has been mostly ignored on this.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Where do you get your talking points? FOX news? n/t

[prolesunited]

10. Resign?!?!

Weren't some laws violated here? Wouldn't charges be in order?

[rocktivity]

14. So the ricin story didn't work

I just hope this guy didn't fall on his sword to save Frist himself.


rocknation

[Thor_MN]

20. No, Frist's office had to be sanitized

It's being cleaned up, and will be spotless by Monday. All the other offices probably got a bit of cleaning too. Anyone know when they started reading the memos? It couldn't have been the last time the offices were shut down for over a week to be cleaned.... Could it?

[seaglass]

15. Miranda was the one who tried to coordinate with Fox

to have all the Repub Senators walk in together for the 5 o'clock news during the filibuster.

Glad he got caught.

[jbfam4]

16. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=33141&mesg_id=33141

[louis-t]

17. I hope they read him his 'Miranda' rights!

[MasonJar]

19. And of course cat-killer Frist had no clue and never used the info.