Invading Palin's privacy – UPDATED

Remember in 2000, when Rick Lazio was running against Hillary Clinton for the NY Senate, and he walked across the stage to hand her a piece of paper and was instantly condemned as “threatening” and excoriated for “invading her space?”

A lot of people regard that as the moment Lazio lost the race. People didn’t like perceiving a woman as being “threatened.” They did not like her “space” being invaded.

Now the Obamaphiles – the angry, crazed, hate-filled part of the left who cannot understand the right and will not play fair – has hacked into Sarah Palin’s email account. They’ve invaded her privacy and that of her family in a way so intrusive it can ONLY be perceived as threatening. People will not like that. WOMEN will not like that. Idiots.

Michelle Malkin spells it out:

The Gawker smear machine — see here for all the background you need — has posted private family photos of Palin’s children that were apparently stolen from the e-mail account.

They have used Bristol Palin’s illegally obtained private cell phone number from her mom’s private account, recorded her voicemail message, and posted it on their website.

They have reprinted her husband Todd’s private e-mail address and son Track’s private e-mail address.

You think this is just a harmless prank? Those of you who have had to deal with break-ins and identity theft know exactly what a burdensome process it is to recover from crimes like this.

Gawker knowingly and deliberately published illegally obtained photos of the Palin children.

Where are the privacy absolutists now?

This article allows that there is nothing problematic about the emails:

“As for the sample e-mails, rather than bolstering the contention that Palin uses private e-mail to avoid possible public scrutiny of official business, at first blush they actually seem indicative of her dutifully separating Alaska business from Alaska and national politics. Both samples are overtly political in nature, which, based on my admittedly limited understanding of the law in this area, make them inappropriate when using government resources.”

I don’t know anyone who has not occasionally used their private email for business and vice versa. But that’s not the point. What they’ve done to Palin is criminal and can bring jailtime. More importantly, is THIS really how they want to win an election? By getting into picayune minutiae of email, trying to find something scandalous, when there is not a politician alive who would want his or her private emails smeared across the internet, of for that matter, anyone else? What gives these people the right to think they can invade someone’s privacy like this?

And excuse me, but aren’t the people on the left the ones who have been telling us – without basis – for the last 8 years that “evil nazi Bush” has been “intruding into people’s private correspondences” and that this (if it were happening) would be a bad thing? Can the hypocrisy get any thicker? First Palin is “not a woman”, and “not the mother of her baby,” and all the rest of the looney tunes stuff…now, she is not an American entitled to her privacy? Is she associating with known terrorists? Is that why she was invaded?

This is the step too far that we all knew the left would take. It’s going to backfire on them spectacularly. No reasonable person, and certainly no centrist or independent type, is going to think that this was relevant, or fair, or the way to play the game.

If Obama doesn’t do some serious damage control, very quickly: game over. These idiots have just brought Sarah Palin enormous sympathy. Now, people don’t just empathize with her, they don’t just “understand” who she is…now, they’ll want to PROTECT her. Stupid, stupid, stupid move. And unethical. And immoral.

I wonder what Olbermann and Matthews and Mitchell and the rest will say about it? They’ll probably try to talk about the content of the emails, and get away from the fact that this woman’s privacy, and her family’s has been seriously penetrated. I mean, that’s what the Dems did when someone leaked a memo from the intel committee discussing how to take down Bush via Iraq. The press spouted outraged at the leak, ignored the content. This time, they’ll try to take umbrage at the content, and ignore the leak.

If newscasters are people with children and private families, and in fact, they are, then they should be horrified by this, not gleeful. But they sometimes don’t understand that the people they cover are human beings, just like them.

Don Surber says in Canada Palin’s phone number has been published online.

This is just way beyond the pale. And it gets worse, too. Unable to keep from revealing their real selves, this idiot is trying to bribe Bristol Palin into aborting her baby. Yeah. Because, as the picture shows, money is better than life. And this creature says Trig Palin should have been aborted.

Nice people, eh? These privacy-invading-picture-stealing-rumor-smearing-death advocates are the people Jeannine Garofalo says are “fundamentally decent” and good…unlike the narrow, racist, sexist, homophobe, knuckledragging, illiterate rest of us.

I have never been more disgusted at a political season, or the treatment of a public figure. And that’s saying something.

Breaking headlines on this here.

Really…they’re just freaking nuts, now.

Wired: quotes a few emails. There’s nothing there, but apparently in a very serious age, with very serious issues at our doorstep, the election is now going to be about Sarah Palin’s Tanning Bed and Sarah Palin’s emails from friends requesting prayers. Oh, and she might have read that on a government email. Or she might not have. It doesn’t matter…let the slipstream fire up.

UPDATE: If Malkin’s latest is correct, this is not “an infamous group” of anarchist hackers, but one person. Be interesting to see if this pans out, if so it’s fascinating. Note, the person was hoping to find “something” that could be used against Palin and came up empty. So, it doesn’t sound totally “random” there, it sounds like intent to do harm to the campaign.

Hot Air (Allah): Sounds like nothing scandalous. That’s not the point, though.

Time Magazine: This is not a hoax.

Ben Smith: Very sophisticated and probably impossible to stop. Nice.

Kim Priestap at Wizbang