What is surprising, however, is that, caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Senate Republicans employed the tactic of blaming the victim: they said, in essence, It's your fault that we got and used your information. If successful, this tactic does not bode well for the government's ability to prosecute computer crimes, and to protect critical infrastructures.
With the resignation last Thursday of Senate staffer Manuel Miranda as the first victim of what I might call "cybergate," we may learn whether this tactic will be pursued and whether it will be ultimately successful.
The scandal itself revolves around the process by which federal judges are appointed, and more importantly, how such appointments are blocked by the opposing party. When President George W. Bush came to office, he sought to make numerous appointments to the federal bench -- some to positions that conservative Republicans had deliberately left vacant for years of Democratic administrations.
The Democrats, at the time a majority in the Senate, sought to use tactics similar to those they criticized Republicans for in preventing such nominations from reaching a vote on the floor of the Senate. The key Senate Committee responsible for such appointments was the Judiciary Committee.
Democratic staffers wrote and transmitted confidential memoranda describing the means they would use to block such nominations in general, and the nomination of conservative Republican Miguel Estrada in particular. A year ago, in February 2003, columnist Robert Novak -- the same columnist responsible for revealing the name of a CIA operative on a leak from government officials -- published information from these Democratic strategy memos. Novak reported that the information came from "internal Senate sources" but refused to identify these sources when questioned by Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage.
