corrente

Neil Lewis of the Times reports:

The Senate sergeant-at-arms, who is nearing the end of an investigation into the tampering, told senators last week that the Republican staff members' activities ... spanned more than two years and involved conscious computer hacking as some 3,000 Democratic documents were secretly downloaded, read and distributed by some number of Republican aides, said people who attended the briefings. No evidence that senators were involved has surfaced.

Before the new disclosures, Republicans had erected a common defense, saying the "spying" was little more than some staff members' peeking at a few documents made available to them through a computer flaw. More important, they argued, the documents themselves show a pattern of perfidy on the part of the Democrats in that they consulted and collaborated with outside liberal groups to oppose President Bush's judicial nominees, who were criticized in harsh terms.

But by Thursday, that appeared to some Republican senators a wan comeback.

When the Democrats began their serial denunciations, they all complimented Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who is chairman of the committee, for his alacrity in initiating the investigation and his statements that he was mortified at what had occurred, comments that have earned him criticism from some conservative groups that he was caving in to the Democrats' demand for an investigation.

"He is the only Republican senator to have apologized for what occurred," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat.

With that, Democrats looked across the U-shaped committee table and glared at the Republicans.

Faced with a difficult-to-defend situation, many Republicans simply withdrew from the field of battle, quietly slipping out of the room.

I'd like to see more of that.

At least this time, when Democrats stood up to the Republicans, the Republicans didn't try to have them arrested. A new triumph for civility.

Meanwhile, if the Democrats were really serious, they'd setting up their own network, using a real operating system (not Windows) that had some security (not Windows). How can they possibly rely on the Republicans not to steal more files whenever they get the chance again? And who's to say what else has been hacked?