One of the Potentially Dirtiest of Political Tricks Deserves Major Jail Time

UPDATE POST: DSCC Head Schumer Introduced Major ID Theft Bill in April
__________________________________

Apparently political hacks, even experienced ones who should know better, have no limits (HT Drudge; bolds mine):

Two members of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have resigned after admitting they obtained Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele’s credit report.
Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), said the two staffers told committee officials in July what they had done. He said the committee began an internal investigation and determined it was an isolated incident.
“The DSCC immediately ensured that Mr. Steele’s credit report was not used or disseminated to anyone,” Mr. Singer said, “It also reported this incident to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.”
He said the employees, who were not identified, were cooperating with authorities.

These weren’t just unsupervised kids on a lark:

A source familiar with the investigation said the employees were “senior staff” members in the research department of the DSCC.
“While the DSCC did not authorize the employees to access Mr. Steele’s credit report, we regret that this incident occurred and apologize to Mr. Steele,” Mr. Singer said.
Mr. Steele’s chief of staff, Paul Ellington, said the lieutenant governor had been made aware of the incident.
“This is a serious legal issue, and a criminal investigation is under way,” Mr. Ellington said last night. “We have been advised by the FBI to not comment and will honor their request.”

There is of course no way to know for certain whether Steele’s credit information was distributed elsewhere. If you or I did this, we would have the book thrown at us. The two “senior staffers” involved deserve no less.

Note: The tactic of investigating opponents’ credit files was recommended at a left-wing blog site I visited last fall, and a different blog heavily criticized this suggestion. I failed to find either occurrence after extensive Google and Google Blog searching. If anyone has a link to either, e-mail me.
__________________

UPDATE: That will teach me to spread out my posts. I had this done last night, and saved it for today (sure, Bizzy). In the meantime, Michelle Malkin did a great post on this, including references to pieces at Newsday and the New York Post (requires registration) that identify the perps, at 10:45 AM. Captains Quarters was ahead of both of us on this. A reminder: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is headed by New York Senator Charles Schumer.

Just to be clear, a commenter at the Captain lays out the legalities:

To obtain a report legally, a signature authorization is required and information is required to obtain the report.

The access of the report is a crime. The distribution of the report is a crime. The acceptance and READING of the report is a crime.

If someone gave the people accessing the report personal information required to obtain the report, they also committed a crime.

Using any of the data on the report against someone is distribution and may even have other criminal elements attached if consideration was requested.

Period.

Every American should be outraged at this misuse of personal data.

UPDATE 2: Zheesh. Weapons of Mass Discussion posted ahead of me. This is getting embarrassing (just kidding, guys).