Hunting bloggers

After Sarah Palin’s 4th of July barrage of legal threats made via Twitter, it couldn’t have been easy to come up with a means of looking even stupider. Her personal attorney Thomas Van Flein, however, has indeed earned his money with this one. In a letter sent to an Alaskan blogger who wrote that Palin was headed for divorce, Van Flein threatened not only to sue for libel, but also to deliver the legal papers during class at the kindergarten where the blogger teaches.

The brief letter begins its feckless foot-stomping with the decidedly unlawyer-like accusation, “Although it is likely you knew that your statements were false when you published them,” and continues on to demand a retraction and apology for printing “false and defamatory statements.” Van Flein then asks for the blogger’s attorney contact info, adding, “If you do not have an attorney, please let me know if you want to be served… at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence.”

The threat is the fourth Van Flein has made on Palin’s behalf against Alaskan bloggers in recent weeks, and has been treated with about as much seriousness as it deserves.

by SCOTT SAXON