Pacific Views

Sacrifice play.

The scandal over Republican Senate staffers secretly accessing the memos of Democratic senators and staff is claiming its first victims. According to those usual 'anonymous sources,' Manuel Miranda — Senate majority leader Bill Frist's main man on judicial nominees — will resign by the end of the week. The Hill suggests that congressional republicans are tossing Miranda overboard in hopes of limiting the damage from the investigation of the leaked memos.

In November, House judiciary committee chair Orrin Hatch revealed that members of his staff had been accessing memos of Democratic members of the committee. Since then, the Boston Globe has reported that Republican staff had been reading Democratic memos for over a year. The Senate's sargeant at arms is currently investigating the leaks, and is expected to make a report in the next two weeks.

Side note: It's interesting that this ABC (US) story doesn't mention that Miranda has admitted that he read Democratic memos, making it somewhat unclear why he was forced out of his position. It's also striking that the story doesn't suggest that Republicans are doing damage control — such reticence about political motives certainly isn't shown in ABC's campaign coverage.