The Return of Sandy Burglar

Hot on the heels of the Norman Hsu scandal, the Clinton campaign has decided it has a shortage of convicts working for it and has apparently added Sandy Berger as a foreign policy expert. This is the guy who stole documents from the National Archives most likely in an effort to protect his former boss, Bill Clinton, from allegations that he ignored bin Laden and other terrorist threats which eventually led to the 9/11 attacks. Jonathan Adler has some thoughts:

FURTHER UPDATE: Why do I find the report that Hillary Clinton is using Sandy Berger as one of her key foreign policy advisors so unnerving? Because it shows both poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger's legal and ethical breaches. I also find it quite surprising. Hillary Clinton has impressed me as a Senator and as a candidate. Whatever her other faults, she is intelligent, savvy, disciplined, and determined; by far the most impressive candidate in the Democratic field. All this makes her apparent inclusion of Berger in her foreign policy "triumverate" all the more difficult to fathom.

For those who forget, Berger repeatedly stole and destroyed classified documents, resulting in the temporary loss of his security clearance. Berger has never provided a plausible explanation for his actions. By voluntarily giving up his law license, he avoided a cross-examination from bar counsel, so we still do not know precisely what he was doing and why. Indeed, the only assurance that Berger did not destroy unique copies of classified national security documents -- such as copies of reports containing notations in the margins and the like -- comes from Berger himself, something that the 9/11 Commission was not told when it was preparing its report (as I noted here).

In sum, I do not believe one needs to be an anti-Clinton partisan to find this report disturbing.

The Clinton campaign clearly thinks they are unstoppable or else they wouldn't take a chance on somebody like Berger. Of course, this is probably payback for the personal and professional damages he suffered following the National Archives theft.