Not only can the republicans NOT think for themselves, now they have
to spy on the Democrats:

GOP stole peek at Dems' papers
Memos were on judicial nominations

Neil A. Lewis, New York Times
Friday, March 5, 2004



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Washington -- For 18 months, at least two aides to Republican senators
engaged in unauthorized and possibly illegal spying by reading
Democratic strategy memorandums on a Senate computer system, according
to a report released Thursday by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms.

The 65-page report concluded that two Republican staff aides, both of
whom have since departed, improperly read, downloaded and printed as
many as 4, 670 files concerning the Democrats' strategy in opposing
many of President Bush's judicial nominees.

The report of an investigation undertaken at the request of the Senate
Judiciary Committee suggests that many other Republican aides may have
been involved in trafficking in the purloined documents from the
offices of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Edward
Kennedy of Massachusetts and others.

"I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable
breach of confidential files occurred," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters.

The report was supposed to be released with the names of people
involved redacted, but reporters were mistakenly given a copy with the
names included.

The two former Republican aides were identified as Manuel Miranda, who
already had been named as a central figure in the investigation, and
Jason Lundell, whose name had not been known previously. Investigators
said an inexperienced computer coordinator did not make files
adequately inaccessible, and that Lundell observed the coordinator
opening files with a few key strokes and then copied what he had done.
For the next 18 months, the report said, Lundell supplied documents to
Miranda after getting access to the files of staff aides for
Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Russell Feingold of
Wisconsin, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
Feinstein and Kennedy. The largest share was from Durbin's office.

Some information sought by Miranda and provided by Lundell, according
to the report, was about how Democrats would question some of Bush's
judicial nominees. Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary
Committee, wrote to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales asking if his
office received any of the stolen information. Gonzales offered a
denial, saying: "I am not aware of any credible allegation of White
House involvement in this matter."