Congress needs to exercise a little more restraint. Certainly many members have heard the cliché “loose lips sink ships.”

Yet, that’s just exactly what could happen if certain members of Congress continue their methods of handling classified information.

It was discovered last week that congressional leaders had leaked sensitive information regarding troop deployments and military security to the press.

A furious President Bush sent out a memo in response, ordering key department heads limit their briefings to the four major leaders - Senate majority and minority leaders, and House majority and minority leaders - and the chairpersons and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The president is willing to compromise with Congress and expand the circle of lawmakers who are allowed to receive the most confidential briefings. He met with House and Senate leaders this week, seeking assurances that a commitment to secrecy would be paramount.

It is astounding members of our own government could be slow-witted enough to give out such information to the media. One could argue the media should simply not have published the information, but generally if the information is deemed safe to release, it’s thought safe to publish.

We did not vote our representatives and senators into office to create news. We voted for them to create laws and to represent us in our government.

Congress needs to realize this and start acting on the people’s best interests, before it creates an even more dire consequence.

It would be a shame to see the mouths of our elected officials sink this ship.