The State Department has a lot of explaining to do. Late last night, the agency revealed that three contract workers broke into barrack Obama's passport files on three separate occasions, as recently as last week.
Two of the workers have been fired, the third has been disciplined. The department is investigating, and said at this point, they believe the workers were not politically motivated. ""We had talked earlier about our doing a search to see whether or not there was any other unauthorized accesses of other presidential candidates and our search revealed two," said State Department Spokesman Sean McCormick.
The department said that the passport files of Hillary Clinton and John McCain have also been breached. Secretary Condoleezza Rice called Obama personally to apologize. "I told him that I was sorry and I told him that myself would be very disturbed if someone looked into my passport."
The Obama campaign wants a broader investigation calling the incident an "outrageous breach of security."
The candidate himself is in Oregon, where he's accepting the long sought endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Some good news, after what has been a tough week. "We need a president who can bring us together as a nation so that we can face global challenges and repair the damage done in the last eight years," said Governor Richardson.
George Stephanopoulos, ABC News This Week said, "This is a really big deal. Couldn't come at a better time for barrack Obama. He had all of this controversy over Reverend Wright. Bill Richardson is one of the most sought-after super delegates out there."
The Clinton campaign had fought hard for that endorsement. Bill Clinton even spent Super Bowl Sunday with Richardson. His status as a super delegate, and the country's only Hispanic governor, make his support all the more critical.
