Let's get this clear right away: Democrats and their allies on the left have a deep, deep respect for the need to protect classified information.

* Let's get this clear right away: Democrats and their allies on the left have a deep, deep respect for the need to protect classified information. We learned that during the CIA leak investigation, when they accused the White House of blowing the classified status of CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson, and then cheered as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald dragged top aides before a grand jury time after time. But that was then. Now they are oddly silent about the deeds of Samuel Berger, one-time Clinton national security adviser and top foreign-policy aide to presidential candidate John Kerry. We've known for a couple of years that Berger sneaked highly classified Clinton-era documents out of the National Archives when he was vetting them for the September 11 Commission. But he claimed it was all inadvertent, an unfortunate accident. Now we know better. A new report from the archives' inspector general describes how Berger stashed the documents in his pockets, left the archives building, headed toward a nearby construction area, looked around to see if the coast was clear, and then stashed them under a trailer, where he would later pick them up, take them to his office, and destroy them. The documents Berger was taking were copies of an after-action report on the Millennium terrorist threats--a report that was critical of the Clinton administration's handling of the matter. Berger has never fully explained what he was doing, and you can be sure he never will, since the Bush Justice Department let him off easy with a plea deal for a $50,000 fine and 100 hours of community service. The whole episode is a travesty, especially in light of a recently released report by House Republicans showing that Berger's actions compromised not only the information provided to the 9/11 Commission but national security as well.