The Boston Globe has just reported that Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee broke into Democratic computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media.

With the help of forensic computer experts from General Dynamics and the US Secret Service, his office has interviewed about 120 people to date and seized more than half a dozen computers — including four Judiciary servers, one server from the office of Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and several desktop hard drives.

Democrats now claim their private memos formed the basis for a February 2003 column by conservative pundit Robert Novak that revealed plans pushed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to filibuster certain judicial nominees. Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi nuclear programs.

Citing “internal Senate sources,” Novak’s column described closed-door Democratic meetings about how to handle nominees.

Not only is this a violation of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), it should lead to criminal charges for those involved. That is if the weak Democrats don’t roll over, again.

This is the Watergate of the digital age: RepubliGate, CyberGate, DigiGate, ElectionGate, JudgeGate, HackerGate, DonkeyGate, Ph33rGate, iD10TGate, BushGate, SenateGate… StupidGate. Call it want you want, but Democrats should latch onto this and make it their central issue for the next few months.

But honestly, why press charges? That just complicates the matter overall. Just round up the suspects and send them to GITMO with no representation, trails, or ability to talk to anyone. Since the last round of detainee’s at GITMO only had to be Arab, then let’s just round up Republicans — any Republicans — and introduce them to the 5 x 5 boxes at GITMO.