Feds fire 2 for looking at Obama file

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - Two contract employees for the State Department have been fired and a third disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file, and the department is investigating whether political or other motives were involved, senior officials said Thursday. Spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing other than "imprudent curiosity" was involved in three separate breaches of the Illinois senator's personal information. It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport application.
The breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, and were detected by internal State Department computer checks, McCormack said. The department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason.
The State Department would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined, or the names of the two companies they worked for. The department's inspector general is investigating.
"We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, but we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said.
The firings and unspecified discipline of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the breaches. Kennedy called that a failing.
"I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call Thursday night. "It was dealt with at the office level."
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation.
"This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes," Burton said.
"This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach," he said.
The department informed Obama's Senate office of the breach on Thursday. Kennedy said that at the office's request, he will provide a personal briefing for the senator's staff on Friday. No one from the State Department spoke to Obama personally on Thursday, the officials said.
Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia for several years as a child before returning to the states. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has traveled to the Middle East, the former Soviet states with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Africa, where in 2006 he and his wife, Michelle, publicly took HIV tests in Kenya to encourage people there to do the same.
Obama's father was born in Kenya, and the senator still has relatives there.
The disclosure of inappropriate passport inquiries recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. The State Department's inspector general said the official had helped arrange the search in an attempt to find politically damaging information about Clinton, who had been rumored to have considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid the Vietnam war draft.
The State Department said the official, Steven Berry, had shown "serious lapses in judgment."
Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady who is challenging Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, said of the breach: "It's outrageous and the Bush administration has to get to the bottom of it."
In the current case, Kennedy and McCormack said it was too soon to say whether a crime was committed. The searches may violate the federal Privacy Act, and Kennedy said he is consulting State Department lawyers.
The State Department inspector general's power is limited, because two of the employees are no longer working for the department. McCormack said it was premature to consider whether the FBI or Justice Department should be involved.
McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was informed of the breaches on Thursday.
The State Department conducts background checks of its contract employees who perform passport applications work, but does not ask about political affiliations, Kennedy said.

Obama's lead over Clinton narrows: Reuters poll

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama's big national lead over Hillary Clinton has all but evaporated in the U.S. presidential race, and both Democrats trail Republican John McCain, according a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday. The poll showed Obama had only a statistically insignificant lead of 47 percent to 44 percent over Clinton, down sharply from a 14 point edge he held over her in February when he was riding the tide of 10 straight victories.
Illinois Sen. Obama, who would be America's first black president, has been buffeted by attacks in recent weeks from New York Sen. Clinton over his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief and by a tempest over racially charged sermons given by his Chicago preacher.
The poll showed Arizona Sen. McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, is benefiting from the lengthy campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, who are now battling to win Pennsylvania on April 22.
McCain leads 46 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup against Obama in the November presidential election, according to the poll.
That is a sharp turnaround from the Reuters/Zogby poll from last month, which showed in a head-to-head matchup that Obama would beat McCain 47 percent to 40 percent.
"The last couple of weeks have taken a toll on Obama and in a general election match-up, on both Democrats," said pollster John Zogby.
Matched up against Clinton, McCain leads 48 percent to 40 percent, narrower than his 50 to 38 percent advantage over her in February.
"It's not surprising to me that McCain's on top because there is disarray and confusion on the Democratic side," Zogby said
Obama gave a speech on Tuesday rebuking his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for sermons sometimes laced with inflammatory tirades but said he could not disown him and it was time for Americans to bind the country's racial wounds.
The poll showed Obama continues to have strong support from the African-American community but that he is experiencing some slippage among moderates and independents.
Among independents, McCain led for the first time in the poll, 46 percent to 36 percent over Obama.
He was behind McCain by 21 percent among white voters.
Zogby attributed this to a combination of the fallout from Clinton's victory in Ohio earlier this month and the controversy over Wright's sermons.
"And, just the closer he gets to the nomination, the tougher questions whites ask about an African-American candidate," Zogby said.
The March 13-14 poll surveyed 525 likely Democratic primary voters for the matchup between Clinton and Obama. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
For the matchup between McCain and his Democratic rivals, 1004 likely voters were surveyed. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/
(Editing by Todd Eastham)

Clinton, Obama backers tone down rhetoric

By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Backers of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama toned down their rhetoric on Sunday for fear party infighting might turn voters against Democrats and deliver their votes into the hands of Republican John McCain.
All over the Sunday TV talk show circuit, journalists tried to get supporters for Clinton and Obama to attack the other side, but time and time again they would not take the bait and tried to stay on the high road.
But away from the TV studios, campaign aides continued the aggressive back-and-forth that for several weeks has dominated the battle to win the party's nomination for the November election.
"What is Senator Clinton hiding, and what is lurking in those documents that she believes voters don't have a right to know?" Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs asked in a conference call with reporters, referring to Clinton's tax returns and records of spending projects she has championed as a New York senator.
Those in Clinton's camp said Obama turned to personal attacks whenever his campaign suffered a setback.
"This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign that has repeatedly shifted 'negative' when they find momentum working against them," strategist Mark Penn said on a conference call.
Clinton officials went on to say that Obama did not have enough experience to be commander in chief and called on him to release all tax returns and other documents since taking office in the Illinois legislature in 1997.
Both candidates took the day off.
The man either candidate will face in November, Arizona Sen. John McCain, was in Baghdad. With no Republican competition, the Arizona senator was able to take trips such as this to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
NEW TONE
Democrats had no such luxury. They were still being questioned about remarks made by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro and Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright that many considered inappropriate. Clinton and Obama, an Illinois senator, have disavowed the statements and their supporters wanted to avoid discussing the comments.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, an Obama supporter, told "Fox News Sunday" his candidate had repudiated Wright's remarks damning America and "guilt by association here is something we've got to stay away from in this country."
An effort to get Sen. Charles Schumer of New York to go on the attack over the issue failed when he responded, "I agree with Chris here. Look, each campaign is wide-ranging. Supporters are all over the place."
Dodd returned the favor after Schumer was asked to explain Ferraro's comments that were considered racially insensitive. Schumer said the remarks were wrong and she had left the campaign, and Dodd agreed.
Democrats still have more than five weeks until their next nominating event in Pennsylvania on April 22 so the unpredictable campaign could take many more twists and turns.
Nine more contests follow but after those it is still impossible for either Obama or Clinton to have enough pledged delegates to be nominated for president at the party's convention in August.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is neutral so far, said on ABC's "This Week" the Democratic party could be hurt if leaders do not abide by the results of state primary contests when they pick a candidate.
Obama, who would become the first black U.S. president, claimed he picked up 10 more delegates in Iowa on Saturday to add to his lead in pledged delegates, which now is around 150.
McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war in Vietnam, was to meet Iraqi leaders and U.S. officials in Baghdad as part of what his campaign calls a nonpolitical fact-finding mission for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Still his meetings with leaders in the Mideast and France and Britain were certain to be used by his campaign to bolster his image as the man best ready to lead the United States and give those foreign leaders a chance to evaluate him.
(Additional reporting by David Wiessler, Jeff Mason and Andrew Stern, Editing by Jackie Frank)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)