It shouldn't be
too surprising.
A top U.S. Senate Republican expressed "deep regret" on Tuesday in announcing that an internal investigation of computer records found one of his staffers had "improperly accessed" Democratic documents.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said he placed the staffer on administrative leave with pay pending a separate probe by the Senate sergeant at arms, Bill Pickle.
Hatch, who had initially ridiculed the allegations, also said a former staffer "may also have been involved," but declined to identify either person by name.
"I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch," the Utah Republican told a news conference [...]
The disclosure came a week after congressional law enforcement authorities began looking into what Democrats called an apparent computer theft of 14 staff memos critical of President Bush's embattled judicial nominees [...]
Hatch had suggested that the memos had been turned over to the news media by a "conscience-stricken" Democratic staffer.
The committee staffs, both Republican and Democrat, share servers, making the theft a relatively easy matter by anyone with the technical knowhow.
And note -- the only reason this was exposed was because the memos were leaked to the press.
Hatch said the staffer who got access to the memos denied giving them to the news media and it remained unclear how reporters got them.
It wouldn't be surprising if this wasn't the first time Hatch's staff pilfered Democratic documents from the server. Hopefully investigators will be able to determine whether this was a one-time incident, or whether there has been a pattern of abuse by the Hatch's staff.
And Democrats should really look into getting their own servers to store sensitive information.