Erika Lovley reports:
An aide for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) was fired yesterday after an investigation indicated the aide was behind an “All [gays] must die” blog comment which was traced back to an IP address in the Senator’s office.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer, who was investigating the case, did not release the name of the aide but said no criminal charges will be pressed.
Read more on Politico. Previous coverage here. My question about why the Sergeant at Arms would be involved was answered in the story:
“There is a Senate rule about only using computers for Senate business, with limited minor exceptions. This really applies to all of Senate property. The use of the computer in this case was wrong and hurtful; but not criminal. We have closed the case,” Gainer told POLITICO.
So even though the IP was traced back to the senator’s district office in Atlanta, it was still considered Senate use. Okay. But apparently the public doesn’t have the right to know who misused our publicly funded government computer? Hmmmm… must be the Privacy Act of 1974 kicking in.