Break the law, get up to two months leave with pay

That's what New York Senator Charles Schumer did when two Senatorial Campaign Committee staffers broke a federal law.

WASHINGTON -- Two opposition researchers working for Sen. Charles Schumer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee obtained copies of a confidential credit report on Maryland's Republican lieutenant governor, prompting calls for their prosecution.

In July, committee research director Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, a junior staffer, used Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's Social Security number to get his credit report, according to a Democratic official familiar with the case.

The committee, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, has been compiling research on Steele, Maryland's highest-ranking African-American official, a GOP contender for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes in 2006.

Barge, a Democratic operative who led the research unit for a liberal media watchdog group run by journalist David Brock before joining the committee in February, reported her actions to the committee's executive director, J.B. Poersch Jr., within hours. Poersch relayed the information to the U.S. attorney's office and suspended the pair with pay until Aug. 31, the official said.

Barge and Weiner resigned earlier this month after an internal investigation. Calls to the FBI, which is probing the case, weren't returned last night.

The Newsday article went on to say that fraudulently obtaining a credit report is a violation of federal law punishable by two years in jail. If Ms. Barge and Ms. Weiner did what is written here they deserve to be prosecuted.

This is a instance of Democratic dirty tricks. But you know something, both parties do it. It's news when they get caught red-handed. So I'm not as outraged as fellow bloggers Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed who I both admire.

What bugs me in this story is Schumer suspending these women. He helped to write this very law and he gives two people who broke it a paid vacation. Jeez I'd like him for a boss.