More dirty tricks? Or just a common thief?

Reports from Washington State speak of a break-in at a Republican party office; the thieves stole several key computers with important election plans, but left others alone.

UPDATE: There's another possible explanation for this event, now that I think about it. Although taking the computers doesn't fit that scenario.

UPDATE: Another break in has occurred in Washington State.

The Washington state headquarters for the president's re-election campaign was broken into last night, and police are investigating the theft of three computers from the Bellevue office.

Missing are laptop computers used by the campaign's executive director, the head of the get-out-the-vote effort and one that had been set for delivery to the campaign's Southwest Washington field director, said Jon Seaton, executive director of the state's George W. Bush campaign.

Seaton said data on the computers was backed up and available elsewhere. But, he said, the loss creates a potential security breach about the campaign's so-called 72-hour plan, the Bush get-out-the-vote effort.

There are basically two possibilities here. Either this is a simple theft of opportunity, or it was a deliberate attempt to obtain data on election efforts. If it's the latter, well, the last time we had something like that happen we called it "Watergate" and a sitting President was impeached and resigned his office because of it.

I find it hard to believe the Democratic Party would officially be that stupid, but someone acting on their own is a clear possibility with tensions so high. The reporter indicates that they took only three computers, all of which would have contained sensitive information, leaving many others behind.

I'll be watching for more information on this one.