The Posts That are Big Hits

Wow! I continually get surprised by the posts that take off. Lightning strikes unreliably. Today all the rage is about this post on the left side of the Blogosphere’s blackmail and intimidation.

Paging John Syles argues that threatening to expose a Senator as a homosexual if he doesn’t vote against the Alito nomination isn’t blackmail:

Evidently they’re not lawyers. Blackmail is “obtaining money or property by threat of exposure to embarrassing, damaging information.”

By subverting the process, I assume they mean trying to affect the votes of legislators, which lobbyists have been doing for ages. What’s the difference here?

Reldim, A poster at RedState actually pulled up the DC Statute on this:

“(a) A person commits the offense of blackmail, if, with intent to obtain property of another or to cause another to do or refrain from doing any act, that person threatens:

(1) To accuse any person of a crime;

(2) To expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether true or false, tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule; or

(3) To impair the reputation of any person, including a deceased person.

Clear enough?

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