Posted on 10/06/2005 4:53:21 PM PDT by george76
The article fails to mention former DSCC research director Katie Barge's previous employment by the left-wing opposition research outfit, Media Matters.
The article fails to mention exactly how Barge and underling Lauren Weiner obtained Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's credit report--by abusing his Social Security number in order to obtain the report under false premises.
The article fails to mention that Barge and Weiner's employer, Sen. Charles Schumer, has ironically fashioned himself a champion of privacy and defender against identity theft. See this Newsday article for the angle the Times refused to print.
And the article fails to mention who's picking up the tab for Barge and Weiner's legal bills.
The Times. Always more informative for what it leaves out than for what it puts in.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
The M & M in HAMMER as she hits the nail of the underlying facts, as usual.
And a looker, too. If I may say so.
I followed the link and read the article. As always, Michelle Malkin is Great!
What's odd is that your post begins in the middle of the article. Usually, it begins at the beginning.
"Chuckaquiddick" In my dictionary now.
The two women at the center of the FBI probe have been keeping a low profile. Both have resigned from the committee.
[Katie] Barge and [Lauren] Weiner declined to comment through their lawyer, William Lawler III, the ex-president of the Washington, D.C., bar association who represented former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey during his 2004 sex scandal.
The DSCC is picking up the tab for Lawler, who charges as much as $400 an hour.
Barge quit a job overseeing a research staff of six at David Brock's liberal watchdog organization Media Matters to take the DSCC job. She is highly regarded in the tight-knit community of Democratic researchers, friends and associates say.
Barge cut her teeth as a researcher on the campaign of failed North Carolina Senate candidate Erskine Bowles and other contests, friends said.
Weiner, a Scarsdale, N.Y., native who graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, raised no red flags working for the Democratic National Committee last year, an associate said.
In April 2000, as an undergraduate at Northwestern University, Weiner published an article about Web access to personal records. In it, she wrote that "the Internet is threatening because it is all-empowering."
Katie Barge is the Research Director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Previously she was research director at Media Matters for America.
Barge "brings a wealth of research experience to Media Matters for America from the range of research positions she has held on presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial campaigns. Most recently she worked in the research department on Senator John Edwards' presidential campaign. Barge is a graduate of Wesleyan University." [1]
******
Miss Barge’s official bio from former employer Media Matters states that she has held a "range of research positions" on "presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial campaigns." (via SourceWatch.org)
She served as opposition research director for Senator John Edwards (D-NC), during Edwards’ short-lived presidential bid, which lasted from September 16, 2003 to March 3, 2004.
The young investigator next surfaced in a New York Times feature of May 3, 2004 announcing the launch of David Brock’s Media Matters for America (MMFA). The article noted that Brock’s new research director Katie Barge "sat before a bank of computers and televisions in a room that was otherwise dark," supervising her "team of nearly a half-dozen researchers." It continues:
"Some of the researchers wore headphones as they scanned episodes of cable news programs stored on digital recording devices, among them `Hannity & Colmes’ on Fox News Channel, `Dennis Miller’ on CNBC and `Scarborough Country’ on MSNBC. Two researchers have been assigned to cover Mr. Limbaugh, whose program they will regularly transcribe."
But Miss Barge was destined for bigger and better things. In February 2005, Schumer’s DSCC hired her as research director. The DSCC works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. In her new job, young Miss Barge now found herself supervising opposition research (that is, political dirt-digging) for every U.S. Senate race in the country.
It was in that capacity, in July, that Miss Barge and her deputy Lauren Weiner used Steele’s social security number to illegally obtain a copy of his credit report, in the process violating the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act
If prosecuted, Miss Barge will need top-drawer legal advice. To that end, she has retained William E. Lawler III, the $420-per-hour criminal defense attorney who represented disgraced former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey. Lawler works from the Washington DC office of the Houston-based law firm Vinson & Elkins, LLP.
http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/pol/101154377.html
Brit Hume mentioned last night that the New York Times has still yet to report on this about their Senator.
Lauren Weiner, used Steele's Social Security number to fraudulently get his credit history. This activity is known as "identity theft," a serious and growing crime. The Fair Credit Reporting Act makes the acquisition, distribution, acceptance, and even reading of this data without specific written authorization a federal crime.
According to the Post, the DSCC, which works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate, has known about the crime for over two months. It placed Barge and Weiner on paid suspension since early July.
However, nobody from the DSCC, or anywhere else, notified Michael Steele about the invasion of his privacy and theft of his identity until this week.
******
Making this even more scandalous, it turns out that the DSCC had known about Barge and Weiner's pilfering for over two months, having placed both on a paid suspension since early July, according to the Post. And yet no one gave any indication that the DSCC notified Michael Steele about the invasion of his privacy until this week. Given that federal statutes make the acquisition, distribution, acceptance, and even reading of this data without specific written authorization a federal crime, the theft should have resulted in no small amount of media attention.
The Washington Post did run an editorial scolding Schumer and the Democrats--but then promptly watered it down with a sniff
about how everybody does it and a call for both sides to clean up their act. The Washington Times provided some coverage that confirmed that Steele wanted the staffers prosecuted. The New York Times has not yet covered the story at all. The rest of the national media, caught up in coverage of dueling hurricane catastrophes, has written and broadcast almost nothing else.
I agree.
What's odd is that your post begins in the middle of the article. Usually, it begins at the beginning.
Just having fun.
Here is more...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497452/posts
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