Mark Steyn updated his earlier post with an e-mail from a reader:
A quibble. You say “It’s not just the e-mails.” But, if similar e-mails had been released for a business, wouldn’t the authors be getting subpoenas to appear before SEC and congress and state attorneys-general?
Sigh. I know, different rules for us and for them. But, how can anyone read the e-mails and not assume they are evidence of a conspiracy?
Then Mark adds: “I was just cutting Jonah a bit of slack. But you’re right. Racketeering indictments would be looming.”
I wish to reject Mark’s slack, reserving it for a later date when I will no doubt need it more.
I agree with this point entirely. If these were internal Exxon-Mobil e-mails, the trial lawyers would be racing out the door with only one pants-leg filled and every Green press flack would be demanding this lead the evening news and front every newspaper above the fold. If similar e-mails came from the RNC showing racism or homophobia, the New York Times would not demur in the name of privacy, it would call for the GOP to go into federal receivership.
I do think some of the e-mails are open to interpretation (there are over a thousand of them). But others aren’t! As I said, it is very clear that these guys have been shown to be dishonest, p.r. men for their cause. It is an enormous scandal.