Democrat Staffer Suspended For Possible Leak Violations Has Ties to Rep. Jane Harman

As reported Friday, a Democrat staffer was suspended last week over possibly being the source of the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate to the New York Times. New reports from the Los Angeles Times and Fox News identified the name of the staffer in question, and that he has ties to Rep. Jane Harman (D-California) who expressed such outrage over the incident (hat tip to Michelle Malkin):

The aide was identified by other congressional officials as Larry Hanauer. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation into the leak, said Hanauer had held positions with the departments of Defense and Homeland Security before joining the professional staff of Democrats on the House intelligence panel about two years ago.

The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) is apparently fed up with all the leaks coming out of Congress, and sent a letter to Harman’s office addressing such concerns:

"It has become clear to me, by your continuing and unauthorized releases of information received and maintained by the Committee, that Democrats are not willing to protect committee information, and that you are politicizing intelligence for purposes not reflecting national security values," Hoekstra wrote.

The highest ranking House member agreed:

In a statement released Friday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert lent support to his fellow Republicans, saying he believed the suspension was a "very prudent step," and, "I believe that Chairman Hoekstra has taken the right steps to properly investigate this matter to protect the integrity of classified information to protect American national security."

UPDATE: It appears that the identity of this staffer was first reported by Fox News' Brian Wilson during the 6PM EST broadcast of "Special Report". The Copley News Service then published an article containing Hanauer's name at 8:50PM EST. Yet, a Google News search at 11:53AM EST Saturday identified only ten media outlets reporting this story so far. This raises a serious question: How much coverage would this story have gotten if the staffer was a Republican, and tied directly to high-ranking Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee?