Democrat Party Asks Pentagon to Assist With Obama's Opposition Research on Governor Palin For 2012 Re-election Campaign

This is, to say the least, shocking. The Democrat Party has requested that the Pentagon help Obama's 2012 re-election effort by assisting with opposition research on Governor Palin and other potential GOP candidates. More Chicago-style politics in the Age of Obama, I guess. Via Rick Klein at ABC News:The Democratic National Committee formally has asked the Pentagon for reams of correspondence between military agencies and nine potential Republican presidential candidates, a clear indication that Democrats are building opposition-research files on specific 2012 contenders even before the midterm elections.An internal Army e-mail obtained by ABC News indicates that the DNC has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for "any and all records of communication" between Army departments and agencies and each of the nine Republicans -- all of whom are widely mentioned as possible challengers to President Obama.The agencies are asked to respond to the request by this Friday, just four days before Election Day.The nine Republicans that Democrats are seeking information on are former Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind.; Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La.The article goes on to claim that this is done all the time:Such requests are typical in the world of opposition research, which involves casting a broad net for publicly available material that may at some point prove embarrassing or incriminating to political candidates. This seems absurd to me. Can anyone imagine the howls of protest we would have heard from MSNBC, CNN, and all the other Democrat media outlets if Bush had requested help with opposition research from the Pentagon as he was gearing up for re-election? I have no doubt that charges of abuse of power and demands for impeachment would have echoed throughout the beltway had he done so. At a time when we're fighting two wars, the Pentagon is going to divert scarce resources to help Obama's re-election campaign? If this is legal, it certainly shouldn't be. Obama (and make no mistake, the DNC does nothing without Obama's approval) wants the Pentagon to dig into Governor Palin's past all the way back to her days in the Wasilla city government:...the FOIA request provides a window into how deeply into potential candidates' pasts opposition researchers are looking, even at this early stage.[...]The DNC is asking for information related to Palin's service on the Wasilla, Alaska, City Council in the early 1990s...I have no doubt that they won't find anything, given the unprecedented level of scrutiny Governor Palin has been under by the Left since she first emerged as a threat to liberalism in August of 2008. There has not been a candidate (or private citizen) in the history of America who has been vetted to the extent Governor Palin has, and yet they have nothing. But that's not the point. Is it really the job of the Pentagon to assist in digging for dirt on political opponents of the President? Is this what Obama meant by hope and change?(h/t Whitney)

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