"The plans you refer to will soon be back in our pants."

The title of this post was borrowed from Will Collier, who used it with good reason (see also his co-blogger Stephen Green's take).

My political bias should be clear enough for regular readers of this site. If not, here's a summary: I am a conservative, though not a (capital R) Republican. I do pull the R lever far more often than not, though, because as a rule I really don't like Democrats.

So when last night, Sam and I were watching the news, and I told her “You know, I wouldn't give the benefit of the doubt to a lot of ex-Clinton staffers, though I'm willing to do so for Sandy Berger”—well, I deserve a gold star for that.

And, apparently, a slap upside the head for being a sucker.

Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after the former Clinton adviser voluntarily returned some sensitive documents to the National Archives and admitted he also removed handwritten notes he had made while reviewing the sensitive documents.

However, some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of Al Qaeda terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing, officials and lawyers said. Officials said the missing documents also identified America's terror vulnerabilities at airports to seaports.

Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket, pants and socks, and also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio.

Personally, I can't remember the last time I stored something in my socks. But maybe I'm just weird that way.

So why does this matter? First, as Collier points out, what Berger has admitted to is a federal crime, even if inadvertent. (For the purpose of comparison, whoever outed Valerie Plame only committed a crime if he or she knowingly revealed Plame's covert status.) Second, Berger was not only President Clinton's National Security Adviser, but is was until today also a foreign policy consultant for Kerry-Edwards. And as Ed Morrissey notes, those connections might matter a great deal.

Perhaps this explanation will fly for those who have never worked around classified documents, but since I spent three years producing such material, I can tell you that it's impossible to “inadvertently” take or destroy them. For one thing, such documents are required to have covers — bright covers in primary colors that indicate their level of classification. Each sheet of paper is required to have the classification level of the page (each page may be classified differently) at the top and bottom of each side of the paper. Documents with higher classifications are numbered, and each copy is tracked with an access log, and nowadays I suppose they're tracking them by computers.

Under these rules, it's difficult to see how anyone could “inadvertently” mix up handwritten notes with classified documents, especially when sticking them into one's jacket and pants. Furthermore, as Clinton's NSA, Berger would have been one of the people responsible for enforcing these regimens, not simply subject to them. The DOD makes these rules crystal clear during the clearance process at each level of access, and security officers (which Berger clearly was) undergo even further training and assessment on security procedures. “Inadvertent” and “sloppiness”, in the real context of secured documentation, not only don't qualify as an excuse but don't even register as a possibility. […]

It would appear that at least one memo had information and/or recommendations that received no action, and its release might embarrass the Clinton administration's national-security team. Besides, the NSA or DOD still considered the data to be highly sensitive, and its loss means that the information it contained has either been destroyed, or if you believe Berger, may be lying intact in a Virginia landfill, waiting to be discovered.

It's been a bad week indeed for Sen. Kerry's foreign policy apparatchiks: first Joe Wilson's slow motion auto-immolation, and now Berger. I don't have the energy to follow all the twists and turns of these debacles. The go-to guys appear to be Tom Maguire and the crew at the Captain's Quarters.

MORE: Speaking of debacles, DNC Chairman Terry MacAuliffe is—once again—trying to jumpstart the Bush AWOL meme. Byron York has the details.