1115.org

The laptop with “the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of millions of current and former service members” that was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst has been turned in to the authorities. “Sensitive personal information of 26.5 million veterans and military personnel apparently had not been accessed.”

That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news:

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said yesterday that three VA documents obtained by the Veterans Affairs Committee indicate that the data analyst was authorized to take a laptop home and use a software package to access the data. That contradicted (VA Secretary Jim) Nicholson’s previous testimony that the employee was not authorized to have the information at home.

“He got all the approvals that he was supposed to have,” Filner said. “I don’t know of a policy that he violated…

Nicholson said he had not seen the documents, and declined to comment because the career analyst is challenging Nicholson’s decision to fire him.

Tim S. McClain, VA’s general counsel, told the panel that one of the documents did not apply to the laptop that was stolen. He acknowledged that the other documents granted the analyst access to Social Security numbers and permitted him to have software at home.

So the VA Secretary’s testimony to the Veterans Affairs Committee has turned out to be untruthful. Are there any repercussions for that in Bush’s sleaze-friendly world? That probably depends on how much noise the story generates. For now, it has been drowned out by the Supreme Court decision handed down yesterday morning. But maybe it will eventually catch the media’s eye. And the public’s. It’s not every day that a Cabinet Secretary gets caught fair and square making an untruthful statement to a Congressional committee in order to to try and save his political a**.

And how sloppy is it to fire the data analyst, and then find out that he’s not willing to play the sacrificial goat? No doubt Josh Bolten will send out a note to all Cabinet Secretaries that it’s best if future sacrificial goats are chosen only after carefully ensuring their willingness to cooperate.