UT-Knoxville Student and Son of Elected Democrat the Focus of Palin Hack Probe

Here's the latest on the Sarah Palin e-mail hacking from The Tennessean.

State Rep. Mike Kernell confirmed Thursday that his son, a University of Tennessee-Knoxville student, is at the center of heated Internet discussion into the hacking of the personal e-mail of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, confirmed that it is his 20-year-old son, David, who is being widely named on Internet blogs and chatrooms in connection with an unfolding story about Palin's hacked e-mail accounts.

The FBI and the Secret Service started a formal investigation on Wednesday into the hacking.

David Kernell is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Mike Kernell said he spoke to his son on Thursday, as he does on a regular basis.

Shocking that some punk son of a Democrat would be up to these dirty tricks, no? I'm sure daddy's connections will prove useful if indeed this kid was the one who did it.

Gateway Pundit is all over this. More at Computerworld, which notes Michelle Malkin and her coverage. Nice to see those sleuths from the leftwing blogs are all over this. More also from Hot Air, The Jawa Report. Ace breaks out the flaming skull.

No doubt the media will be eager to play up the connection to an elected Democrat.

Update: Earlier today we noted the AP's belligerent attitude toward a request from the Secret Service. Well, it's even worse than you can imagine.

The AP publicized Palin’s other personal e-mail accounts, as well as her husband’s, which were derived from information obtained illegally by the hacker. Bridis says having Yahoo accounts is an open invitation for hackers and that the victims are to blame for invasions of privacy.

By refusing to cooperate with the federal investigation into the hacking crime and publicizing the Palins’ other personal Yahoo e-mail account information, the AP openly invited hackers to break into those family accounts as well and endorsed illicit activity to raid private family photos.

The issues are inextricably linked, to borrow a phrase, and raise questions about the propriety of AP’s continued flacking for Barack Obama under the guise of objective journalism.