The act of keeping classified material as your personal plaything especially when out of office smacks of entitlement.
One they don't have.
These incidents should prevent all 3 from running for office again because it's proof they can't be trusted to do the right thing and they hold the rules in contempt.
Thanks. Ten years ago, this type of thing would have prevented anyone from running for office. But we have so few standards left these days, but just about nothing is still disqualifying.
The real take away from this is the point you mentioned toward the end of your piece. The average Joe doesn't really think this is a big deal, outside of earning points in partisan games.
The truth is people in general don't take securing sensitive information seriously. How many people do you know keep their passwords written on a sticky note adhered to their computer monitor? Or have their kid's name as their password, and so on...
I'd wager the vast majority of public official have mishandled classified information in some way or another over the years. No one will be punished because the political class doesn't want the FBI coming to THEIR house to look for things that shouldn't be there.
The only positive that could come out of this story, is a update and remedial training to all public officials on the proper way to handle classified material, followed up by a clearly communicated, uniformly applied enforcement policy.
I think you're right in your general assessment of how people view security, though I suspect the number of public officials who've mishandled classified documents in such a manner is much smaller than you think. I agree that if anything positive is to come from this, it will be better procedures and safeguards.
What a perfect summary John!
Couldn't have said it better myself.
The act of keeping classified material as your personal plaything especially when out of office smacks of entitlement.
One they don't have.
These incidents should prevent all 3 from running for office again because it's proof they can't be trusted to do the right thing and they hold the rules in contempt.
Thanks. Ten years ago, this type of thing would have prevented anyone from running for office. But we have so few standards left these days, but just about nothing is still disqualifying.
What ever happened to accountability for people's actions?
There's been a slow erosion of that from the fabric of society over the last two decades.
The real take away from this is the point you mentioned toward the end of your piece. The average Joe doesn't really think this is a big deal, outside of earning points in partisan games.
The truth is people in general don't take securing sensitive information seriously. How many people do you know keep their passwords written on a sticky note adhered to their computer monitor? Or have their kid's name as their password, and so on...
I'd wager the vast majority of public official have mishandled classified information in some way or another over the years. No one will be punished because the political class doesn't want the FBI coming to THEIR house to look for things that shouldn't be there.
The only positive that could come out of this story, is a update and remedial training to all public officials on the proper way to handle classified material, followed up by a clearly communicated, uniformly applied enforcement policy.
I think you're right in your general assessment of how people view security, though I suspect the number of public officials who've mishandled classified documents in such a manner is much smaller than you think. I agree that if anything positive is to come from this, it will be better procedures and safeguards.