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Democrats and Intellectual Property Theft
By Mike Bayham
June 20, 2002

Ask a Republican about Democratic intellectual property theft and you might hear him complain about Bill Clinton's co-opting of the Republican Party agenda during the second half of his first term in office. Why, one might lament, he went from being the father (or mother) of gays in the military and then he signs into law welfare reform.

I have a very different view of what Clinton did for in my mind it was not stealing but smart politics. However this week there was an actual case of "theft" that is being spun by the media as "lucky politics" that has top White House operatives hopping mad and regrettably very few others.

According to Roll Call, a computer disk containing an analysis of Republican prospects in the 2002 US Senate race was conveniently found by a Democratic Congressional staffer. The staffer has since shared this information with others.

Roll Call's write up on the information flap had more to do with its content than the "discovery" of the disk and its unauthorized distribution. According to the information on the disk, Republicans (as I have stated in several previous columns) are going to have a tougher time in the off year elections than many believe. Not only is the GOP running against history (the party in control of the White House has lost seats in Congress in every midterm election except two since Teddy Roosevelt), but it is finding itself on the defensive in states that many Republicans take for granted.

Reliable Republican states like Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas (states with US Senators retiring) have been labeled as potential pick ups for the Democrats. Worse yet, Republican incumbents in New Hampshire, Colorado, Maine and Arkansas have been described by the memo as in danger.

Pundits and other assorted talking heads have either been so caught up in this revelation of potential Republican weak spots that nobody has stopped to ask these two questions: how did this Democratic staffer REALLY get his grubby mitts on this computer disk and why has no one stated their dismay over the spreading of ill-gotten information.

I have traveled to Washington, DC ten times in my life. Every time I have visited our nation's capital, I have passed the White House. Across the street from the White House is Lafayette Park which has the original equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson (a copy of it is in Jackson Square in New Orleans) and other statues of foreign military leaders who assisted America in the Revolutionary War. It is also full of homeless people and tourists.

There is no way in hell that a computer disk would have laid on the ground or on a park bench ten seconds with all of the pedestrian traffic that goes through the area. And the calculated odds of it being picked up by a Democratic aide from Capitol Hill would be at a Powerball level. More than likely, an inhabitant of the park would have grabbed it first to see if it is of any value and then toss it away.

However we are told (or the Democrats would have us believe) that a person who just so happens to work in Congress for the opposing party, was leisurely strolling through Lafayette Park and comes upon this object littering the beautiful park. Rather than disposing in a trash can this item that is obviously spoiling Federal property, the staffer then assumes that there must be something of value in this disk cleverly disguised as a plain old 3.5 floppy. From there, curiosity overtakes the staffer and he (or she) decides to put someone else's property in their computer to read information that is private.

Because Republicans are evil (you would be surprised to find out how many Democratic activists really think conservatives are), this individual feels a moral obligation to betray the plans of those who wish to make countless species of photoplankton and other microscopic creatures extinct and then forwards this data to his superiors all the while visions of receiving the "Order of Lenin" (or Daschle) are dancing through his (or her) head.

To quote Dr. Evil, "Riiiiiiiight."

The most likely scenario is that the disk was, to use an old TKE phrase, "liberated" from an office and then conveniently left on the sidewalk where, what do you know, an aide to a Democratic congressman picks it up, checks it out, and then sends it out. One has to wonder if a professional pick pocket was not hired as a consultant to choreograph the whole affair.

But let's assume that the "dumb luck" line reported really happened (I am already counting my Powerball winnings) and that the disk containing the witticisms of Karl Rove was lost by a careless Republican and found by a curious and fortunate Democrat. Sure it COULD happen. But even in a world of millionaire Louisiana Governor Mike Bayham and First Lady Sarah Michelle Gellar-Bayham, there is still something very wrong that cannot be morally explained: that the confidential information was sent out.

Regardless if the story about how the disk came into Democratic hands was legit, there can be no justification made regarding the spreading of the questionably obtained information. The person who "found" the disk should have turned it in or thrown it away. Reading private information, whether it be political or personal, contained on a computer disk is inexcusable. Though in the eyes of the law there might be a difference, in reality to do what the staffer did is the equivalent of finding someone's mail on a sidewalk and proceed to open it and share its contents with the public.

I was only ten days old when Watergate crested with the resignation of Richard M. Nixon. And though I can honestly say that I do not personally recall the final 240 hours of the Nixon Administration and the events that brought him down, I am constantly reminded time and time again by the Democrats, the media, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that the illegal and unethical acquisition of private information is wrong, even if such acts were precedents set by previous Democratic administrations.

Ironically, a special was recently held with some of the Watergate figures who talked about the scandal that distracted the nation over a quarter of a decade ago. The consensus of the panel was that the lessons of Watergate have not been learned. It is obvious that the Democrats, who once waved the "bloody tape transcript" and are now celebrating and eagerly spreading the likely illegally obtained White House campaign memo, never did learn the lesson they tried to teach the Republicans. Or just maybe there was no lesson to be really learned by Watergate and that the whole affair was just a political tool used by Democrats to inflict a serious wound on the GOP?

So this Republican would have you believe.