By David Sirota
The Senate just finished up voting on the Democratic amendment to crackdown on high government officials who leak classified information and compromise U.S. national security. Incredibly, the self-described "pro-national security" Republican Party voted down the legislation, apparently ignoring all of their previous claims to despise leaks. The GOP also voted down their own amendment, apparently realizing how ridiculous it really was. To see how your Senator voted, see the final roll call votes on both the Democratic and Republican amendments linked below (the links should be active in the next few minutes).
To understand how outrageous this is, re-read the text of the Democratic amendment. This is not an exaggeration: the GOP is now on record voting in support of preserving the security clearance of a "federal employee who discloses or has disclosed classified information, including the identity of a covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency." Unbelievable.
Sources:
Text of the Democratic amendment cracking down on those who leak classified info [1]
Senate roll call vote on the Democratic amendment [2]
Text of the bogus GOP amendment [3]
Senate roll call vote on the bogus GOP amendment [4]
LINK TO ORIGINAL [5]