[HenryLeeII]

There are other arenas of higher sensitivity. A TS in one arena does not equal a TS in another. One person may have a TS for work on some "fancy weapons" program but that TS means nothing in the many other non-"fancy-weapons" arenas.

TS is simply a categorization of classified material based on the harm to national security its release would mean. There are categories within the TS level (compartmented information), so someone with a TS clearance is cleared to see and handle only what he has a need to know. Now, the members of the SSCI, which Kerry used to be on and Edwards currently is, sees more than senators in general, although they all had access to a lot before voting on the Iraq war resolution. And regardless of what is blathered about in Hollywood movies, TS is the highest category of classification; but again, there are sub-categories within it.

So my original thought was that what Kerry had in Vietnam cannot compare to what he has been briefed on present day.

That's correct as far as the breadth of what he's briefed on, but it simply doesn't matter because violating the restrictions put on the holder of a TS clearance are the same (theoretically), no matter the topic.

[angkor]

My lazy reading of Kerry's docs at Findlaw is that he had some sort of nuke training, and in the USN of the 70's TS was pro forma for anything - anything - having to do with nukes, whether as weapons or power plants. I presume its the same today.

It's all moot in any case, since elected Congressional officials do not need formal clearance to access classified materials within their scope of interest. Intel Committee members are regularly briefed on Q Class, TS SCI, blah blah blah whatever. They are not subject to the normal background checks.