It was September 2019.

The headline in the Washington Examiner concerned this from former South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy. The headline:

Trey Gowdy: ‘Partisan’ Adam Schiff scares off access to confidential information

The story said, in part, this:

“When you put someone who is wrong as often as Adam Schiff is wrong and is as deeply partisan as he is, in charge of the intelligence committee, then no, you’re not going to share confidential information because Adam leaks like a sieve,” Gowdy said.

Trey Gowdy got it right. And with the refusal of the Trump administration to “consult” with congressional Democrats, Schiff prominently included, the chickens have come home to roost.

A furious Speaker Nancy Pelosi bitterly complained that “this action was taken without the consultation of the Congress.”

In a priceless post, conservative author, filmmaker, and ex-Reagan aide Dinesh D’Souza said this of Democrat Senate Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s complaint about not being consulted:

Neither were the Iranians, and for pretty much the same reason.

Well aside from the humor, in fact D’Souza’s comment was clearly, if sadly, on point.

As Gowdy noted, time after time after time, Schiff and other House Democrats leaked — in partisan fashion — confidential information that should never have been slipped to their buddies in the media.

All targeted to attack the president. And in so doing, what could be called “the Schiff Effect” created for the Democrats in both the House and Senate a seriously bad reputation for not being trustworthy with the handling of confidential information. It is, as D’Souza was alluding, almost the same as leaking the information directly to the Iranians themselves.

Add to this image the rabid Trump Derangement Syndrome among Democrats, which has them literally siding with the murderous Iranian regime over the president.

An appalled former Sen. Joe Lieberman, the longtime Democratic senator from Connecticut and 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to blister his party. Lieberman said this, bold print supplied:

President Trump’s order to take out Qasem Soleimani was morally, constitutionally and strategically correct. It deserves more bipartisan support than the begrudging or negative reactions it has received thus far from my fellow Democrats. The president’s decision was bold and unconventional. It’s understandable that the political class should have questions about it. But it isn’t understandable that all the questions are being raised by Democrats and all the praise is coming from Republicans. That divided response suggests the partisanship that has infected and disabled so much of U.S. domestic policy now also determines our elected leaders’ responses to major foreign-policy events and national-security issues, even the killing of a man responsible for murdering hundreds of Americans and planning to kill thousands more.

Lieberman went on to say this:

After World War II, Sen. Arthur Vandenberg, a Michigan Republican who was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, formed a bipartisan partnership with President Truman that helped secure the postwar peace and greatly strengthened America’s position in the Cold War. “Politics stops at the water’s edge,” said Vandenberg when asked why he worked so closely with a Democratic president.

Exactly. But the sad thing here is that one suspects many of today’s Democrats have no idea who Arthur Vandenberg was, not to mention that they would doubtless scorn his “politics stops at the water’s edge” mantra.

All of this is hurting Democrats. As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said, all of this rabid, crazed anti-Trumpism is not merely doing incredible damage to the Democratic Party, but it is also fueling a surge of millions of dollars into the Trump campaign from angry Americans.

Or, put another way, the Schiff Effect has not only done serious damage to his party’s reputation for handling secret information — it is also helping to do the one thing his party says they are determined to prevent.

That would be reelecting Donald Trump.