There is something appropriate in how the media keep using the word “meddling” in referring to the alleged Russian hacking of various pro-Clinton groups, and it points to some of the political limits in Democratic excuse-making.
I obviously oppose hacking by any foreign intelligence into any American’s e-mail, but imagine that . . . I dunno . . . the Chinese had hacked into Mitt Romney’s e-mail and revealed that he admitted that his plans involved raising taxes on the poor. I think our journalists would be able to do a better job of striking a balance between condemning the foreign hacking and thinking through the implications of the revelations. Certainly, those who would potentially be impacted by those tax increases would have good reason to take the new information into account.
This gets to the heart of what the hacking revealed that was damaging to Clinton. It wasn’t Clinton cussing to her friends. It wasn’t Clinton venting about her family or friends or coworkers. The damaging revelations were about matters that were — for all but the most hardcore Clinton partisans — indisputably matters of public concern.
What hurt were the revelations that Clintonite stooges tried to rig the Democratic nominating contest in her favor. What hurt was her comment in favor of “a hemispheric common market with open trade and open borders.”
What hurt about the leaks was that they confirmed what was already suspected. The Democratic National Committee played favorites. She liked to indulge the extreme (open borders) fantasies of her wealthy donors and bragged about how she had both a public and a private position on policy.
That is why the Democratic complaints about the hacking are so vague. The hackers didn’t steal votes (so far as we know.) The Democrats can’t properly argue that the public shouldn’t know about how their nomination process was unfair. The Democrats got caught, and they are trying to deflect by pointing at who caught them. This is the lament of the Scooby-Doo villain Pietro:
I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling hackers.