http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080321/...sa_politics_dc

How sad. Discuss.

History repeats itself: (from the article):

A political firestorm erupted in 1992 after State Department officials searched Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport and citizenship files. The search coincided with Republican attacks on Clinton for his role in the Vietnam anti-war movement as a student at Oxford University in 1969 and for a trip to Moscow he made at the same time.

An investigation found no laws were violated but that officials exercised poor judgment.

We could discuss Nixon and Hoover and McCarthy and infinitum.

Same old story.

Yes: that is sad.

So it goes.

State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates — Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain — and the department's inspector general is investigating.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23736254

I don't understand why passport files were searched. What information could be found in them that wouldn't be publicly available?

I just assume they wanted to know where and when these guys were abroad.

As with the Bill Clinton note they knew he was "a student at Oxford University in 1969 and for a trip to Moscow he made at the same time."

For example what if Obama was discovered to have been in Mecca for the Hajj?

I don't think the travel records are public property.