Aww, those nice little liberal Democrats, always being taken advantage of by mean Republicans and their cynical, underhanded treachery. The Repubs play political hardball, and dang it, poor, helpless Penelope Pureheart (D-Fairyland) is just unable to respond in kind, due to her upstanding and kindly nature, keen sense of propriety, and unshakeable dignity.

You’ve all seen pleas here and there for Dems to start getting down in the trenches and fling some mud themselves at last, as if they never had before — as if “the politics of personal destruction” weren’t a Clinton innovation in the first place. Although really, the truth is that what some overly pious observers are fond of disparaging as “negative” campaigning has always been with us, and in fact used to be a hell of a lot worse.

But the conceit underpinning the claim that Democrats aare just “too nice” for all that is purest horseshit. And Tasergate is just the last in a long, sordid line of examples.

The investigation, which began after Monegan’s dismissal in July 2008, is being led by outspoken supporters of Barack Obama and members of the Democratic Party. Sen. Elton, the Chair of the Legislative Council donated $2,000 to the Obama campaign but has failed to disclose this to the Legislative Council and he continues to preside over the Council with respect to the investigation, refusing to convene meetings of the Council at the request of a majority of the Council’s membership. Sen. French the investigation “project manager” failed to disclose to the Legislative Council the comments he made on a radio program criticizing the Governor’s conduct regarding the termination of Monegan as “criminal” prior to being appointed as the investigation “project manager” and even prior to a vote to investigate at all. Sen. French also failed to disclose to the Legislative Council that he had a personal bone to pick with the Governor over the Monegan firing because Monegan was a friend and because he had worked closely with Monegan during the 2008 legislative session regarding attempts to include in the state budget items that Governor Palin had vetoed.

There were reasons aplenty for firing Monegan, and as for the out-of-control trooper himself, firing was the absolute least he should’ve been faced with, and firm action should’ve been taken against him long ago. But there can’t be much question that the investigation into Palin’s supposed “misconduct” is nothing more than a politically motivated attempt to nullify a highly popular Republican governor who was, even when this sham began, already beginning to look like one of the faces of the Republican future. And with the stumblebum Savior beginning to mumble incoherently and piss himself from his unseemly, stuporous recumbency in the extreme-Left gutter, the Democrat hit team had to keep on pushing:

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

“It’s likely to be damaging to the Governor’s administration,” said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

Captain Ed says:

The tenor and direction of this probe has become so blatant that Palin announced that she would no longer cooperate with it, and given these developments, it’s not hard to understand why.

Nope. Related, albeit much more disturbing, item:

Much of Barack Obama’s political success can be traced to a database listing contact information for millions of people, a tool that has proved invaluable in raising record sums of money and organizing a national volunteer network.

Now Obama’s presidential campaign is increasingly using the list to beat back media messages it does not like, calling on supporters to flood radio and television stations when those opposed to him run anti-Obama ads or appear on talk shows.

It did so as recently as Monday night, when it orchestrated a massive stream of complaints on the phone lines of Tribune Co.-owned WGN-AM in Chicago when the radio station hosted author David Freddoso, who has written a controversial book about the Illinois Democrat.

The latest use of the database, called the Obama Action Wire, is proving yet another new and potentially powerful tactic in the closing weeks of a campaign that has already been dominated by Internet-based messages and media.

A page on the campaign’s Web site, headlined “Hit ‘em where it hurts,” told supporters how to complain to advertisers at stations that ran a recent anti-Obama ad.

“We’ll provide you with talking points on this maliciously false hit ad to help guide you through the process,” the page said, citing a spot run by a conservative group called the American Issues Project.

The ad questioned Obama’s long, cozy relationship with American terrorist swine Bill Ayers, and thus was “maliciously false” only insofar as any criticism whatsoever of the Savior simply must be either that, or racist. In other words, it was perfectly true — and therefore, to the Obamajugend, completely unacceptable.

Democrats too nice to fight dirty? T’ain’t funny, McGee. But it sure is a joke. The Dems far more closely resemble Fibber, no matter how hard they try to falsely portray themselves as Molly. And they have for a long, long time.

Update! “Too nice?” Yeah, right. Note too, as Michelle does, that we don’t seem to be hearing a peep about this outrageous (and felonious) invasion of privacy from the fine, brave folks who squealed the loudest about Bush’s “illegal wiretapping.” Guess for them, privacy protection is only for terrorists.