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Atilla the Hen and her mouthy minions have been spouting off endlessly to the media for two straight days without providing one shred of evidence that the Lieberman website was, indeed, hacked.  Nor has any evidence been provided that shows they had competent web personnel who were using firewall protection (which is now in question, based on this DKos diary). 

And despite their insinuations and outright accusations that someone in the Lamont campaign was involved (see this Hen e-mail to the NYTimes...for a second straight piece in that newspaper, with no response from the Lamont campaign nor anything from a tech expert on the viability of the accusations..classy), there is not one shred of evidence reported anywhere -- or given by the Lieberman campaign -- to substantiate their smarmy accusations.  Not one shred.

Which brings me to the things that I DO know about this:

1.  When the Lamont web team found out that the Lieberman website was having problems, they called Lieberman headquarters and offered to go over to Joe's HQ and help to fix the website.  That is classy and decent.  And they have not heard one thing back from anyone at Lieberman's office about their offer.  Not.  One.  Thing. 

2.  Didn't hear about that offer of help from the Lamont staffers from any of the Liebermen media smear team, did you?  The offer was made ages ago.  Hello reporters -- can I get some follow-up in aisle seven?

3.  But wait, there is more -- the Lamont campaign not only offered to send tech help, they also offered to host Joe Lieberman's website on their own Lamont servers.  What did the Lieberman campaign say to such a decent offer?  Not a damn thing -- they haven't even bothered to respond in all of the hours that the offer has been on the table.

One begins to wonder if they are milking this story in the media rather than trying to mitigate their damages.  I also know something else:  computer geeks nationwide are sitting in their cubicles, shaking their heads and saying to themselves, "It's about the bandwidth, idiot.  You get what you pay for, and you are getting bargain basement bandwidth."

This is an election for national office.  The media are running with unsubstantiated rumors that don't add up factually, and broadcasting them to voters on election day.  Tampering with an election is a crime.  If some sick-ass hacker did, indeed, break into the Lieberman campaign's website, then they should be prosecuted.  Period.

But what remedy do we have against a political campaign intent on blaming their own technical shortcomings on their opponent in a last-minute smear campaign on election day, if that is what is happening?  And how do we hold the media accountable for their role as witting accomplices? 

Did no one learn anything from Judy Miller?!?

Oh, and and FYI to the Lieberman campaign:  filing false criminal complaints can result in criminal charges being filed against the person making bogus allegations.  So if you plan on filing complaints all over the state, you'd best be certain that you can back them up with facts.  Smoke and mirrors may work with a complacent media, but it doesn't cut it with a judge or an over-worked prosecutor and criminal investigators.  They don't find false complaints remotely amusing.