Passport Story Leaves Me Confused About Outrage

A few days ago, it was discovered that Senator Barack Obama's passport file had been accessed on three different occasions at the US State Department. Shortly thereafter, it was also reveled by the State Department that both Hillary Clinton and John McCain's passport records were improperly reviewed as well. While breaches of this kind are wrong and should not be conducted at a US agency like the State Department, I am a little bit confused about the level of outrage express by all three major candidates running for President of the United States in 2008.

First, when I high profile figure like John McCain, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama travels outside the United States – it is well known not only where they have gone, but the reason for their trip is usually well documented among the mainstream media which reports those trips to the public. Most likely, the level of outrage express by all three candidates is to hopefully head off future investigations by members of their opponents dirty tricks department hoping to dig up dirt as this years campaign moves forward.

It has long been known to people that are responsible for keeping American secrets that the US State Department often times is responsible for reveling our secrets to both friend and foe alike. The US State Department is filled with career diplomats that sometimes use their own judgment on what should be released to the public instead of following the law. In this case it does appear that some civilian contractors and one State Department employee did access sensitive information in an unlawful manner. The civilian contractors have been fired by their company and the State Department employee has been reprimanded for wrongly pulling up Hillary Clinton's passport file while conducting a State Department training class.

Most conservative Americans, like myself, worry more about intrusions from an ever growing government complex much more than anything else. It is in the very nature of most Americans to not trust their government and the bureaucrats that do the tedious work directed toward them by the Congress and President of the United States. There are few things that most Americans fear more than a lifelong bureaucrat taking a look into their background information and using that data to cause problems for the person involved. There are strict rules in place to allow as few people as possible, in government, from having access to the private records of Americans.

Once again the State Department has messed up and let low level employees and non employees see information on American citizens that was not allowed by law. Hopefully, this latest passport mess will be fixed by getting the State Department to update their procedures as to why and how people are given access to this most sensitive of information.