Conservative Twitter Guy is Teased, Brings Lawsuit (suing blogger for "emotional distress")

[Stephanie]

Do you suppose he'll hire a "trial attorney"?

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/200...

Conservative Twitter Guy is Teased, Brings Lawsuit
By Roy Edroso

You may have heard that conservatives were planning to win back power with Twitter (yeah, we know, but hear us out). To this end a couple of bright fellows, Michael Leahy and Rob Neppell, started Top Conservatives on Twitter. It's more than a hashtag (#TCOT) -- it's an important rightwing equity!

Leahy -- who previously occupied his time with Obama "birther" conspiracy theories and similar hard-hitting political reportage -- particularly liked to brag on his brainchild's accomplishments ("#TCOT Continues to Dominate Twitter Hashtags"). Eventually the two founding tweepers got in a fight, leading to public embarrassment and much mockery. (The pair has since decided to entrust their precious TCOT to a "third party.")

One of Leahy's top mockers has been StephanieInCA. At her website Teablogging she deals classic internet insults (e.g. "Insane douchenozzle") to Leahy, and has also reproduced some of his unflattering tax history.

Leahy feels stung by StephanieInCA. And guess how this Twitter pioneer is responding?

That's right -- with a lawsuit, accusing StephanieInCA of Libel, Invasion of Privacy, Interference with an Economic Contact and (our favorite) Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.

The whole filing is pretty hilarious, but here's a breakdown:

First, it appears Leahy has done some sleuthing, identifying StephanieInCA as Stephanie Grasmick, and reproducing with painstaking detail her work, personal, and even social media contacts ("Grasmick is Facebook friends with Shauna Daly, Research Director at the Democratic National Committee and a known bare knuckles political operative known for digging up dirt on political opponents"). Did we mention Leahy is suing for Invasion of Privacy, and that this filing appears on his website?

***

As further motive for Grasmick's mission to destroy him, Leahy claims that "Liberal Democratic political activists across the country fear the political power that has been evidenced by the success of the Tea Party Movement." He also accuses her of using Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals on him -- not from any evidence, but probably because that's one of the things rightwingers like to say about Obama. (Leahy himself has penned a book called Rules for Conservative Radicals, which suggests a certain amount of projection.)

==more at link==